DEFORESTATION

 “Life lost never to be returned”

 



Deforestation is a type of land pollution that occurs as a result of the removal of trees without planting other trees to replace them. The image above illustrates deforestation the hills of Champ Fleur. The hills of Champ Fleur were once completely covered by luscious green trees which provided breath-taking scenery. However, today these luscious green trees are being cut down and replaced by man-made infrastructure such as the buildings seen in the image above.

Deforestation is of major concern because it has many adverse effects. Some of which include soil erosion whereby the land becomes vulnerable to weathering agents such as water and wind resulting in the loss of productivity of the land. Deforestation also leads to the destruction of animal habitats and in turn the loss of life of these animals since forested areas such as the Champ Fleur hills provides not only a place for these animals to live but also provides them with food. Greenhouse effects and global warming also results from deforestation. Since trees along with oceans are the main recycling units of carbon dioxide into oxygen, it means that with the removal of trees from the environment there would be a greater saturation of carbon dioxide on the earth. This concentration of carbon dioxide acts as a blanket preventing long wave radiation from returning into the atmosphere leading to greenhouse effects and consequently global warming when this radiation is converted into heat.

Deforestation can be seen in many areas in Trinidad but is seen to a wider extent in places which are considered to be urban or suburban such as Champ Fleur. The Ullman and Harris model 1945 can be applied to Trinidad as there are multiple nuclei throughout the country. According to the Ullman and Harris model 1945, each nucleus acts as a growth point and in time there will be an outward growth. Within Champ Fleur alone there are many industries such as the Carib brewery, Unilever Limited and the West Indies Tobacco Company. Also located within this area is the Mount Hope General Hospital. As such populations tend to develop around these sectors of the economy and as the population continues to grow there becomes an ever increasing need for land for activities such as commercial uses as well as residential uses. But because there is limited land available people now seek areas which would have once been considered unusable because of factors such as terrain to construct buildings and settle. As such it can be said that there is a relationship between deforestation and urbanization.