Rainforests are homes to animals and indigenous forest people. Animals take food from their natural habitat and, in turn, act as food for larger predators, keeping in sync the balance of nature. Indigenous people have always used the resources of the rainforest to sustain themselves using knowledge passed down from their ancestors. As settlers have moved into the rainforests looking for agricultural opportunities, however, many of the natural habitats are disappearing.
When trees are cut down, it exposes the soil to heavy rainfalls that can wash away topsoil and damage the quality of the soil, nullifying crop production. As a result of the soil being washed away, sediment can collect in rivers and irrigation systems, contaminating drinking water, interrupting hydroelectric operations and flooding neighboring areas. Droughts become more prevalent because of the inability of the rainforest to recycle rainfall, and temperatures destabilize as more radiation is reflected back into the atmosphere.
The major greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide. The Global Carbon Cycle includes things that produce carbon dioxide, such as cars, and things that consume carbon dioxide, such as growing plants. Since tree trunks are 50 percent carbon, that carbon connects with oxygen and releases into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Deforestation has a greater yearly effect on global warming than all of the fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas, combined.
As deforestation brings about climate change, it accelerates the spread of diseases by increasing the areas in which disease-carrying animals, insects and microorganisms can survive. The germs and viruses they carry proliferate in regions where they previously have not been able to survive. There is a possibility of increased incidences of malaria, yellow fever, encephalitis and respiratory diseases throughout the world in the coming decades because of global warming.