The History of Deforestation

It may not sound all that exciting to talk about the history of deforestation, but it’s actually a pretty interesting topic. While everyone is talking about the disappearance of the rain forest and the consequences, which are admittedly quite frightening, it might be enlightening to look at how we got to this point.

At one point, many millennia ago, the earth was mostly covered in forest and grasslands. But humans quickly started destroying the trees to create land for their own use. The earliest evidence of plant and animal extinction caused by man (deforestation) goes back some 4,000 years. The good news, if there is any, is that we’re not the first people to try to destroy the forests.

Of course, as the industrial revolution got underway, deforestation took off in more developed countries. We’re still tearing down trees to build suburbs and shopping centers, as a matter of fact, but we’re not doing as much of it, it’s not as troublesome because we’re not carving out huge chunks of forests.

The main problem with deforestation now is the slash and burn technique that destroys the trees without using them productively, and robs the soil of its nutrients so nothing will grow. The whole point of much Amazon deforestation is to create arable land.

Using bad techniques to clear the ground ruins the land, and after a few seasons they’re off to burn down more forest to clear more land. If the original land were cleared correctly, and crops rotated, the land would grow crops well for many years.

Deforestation is not new, and unsurprisingly, it’s not going away anytime soon, either. But looking at the history and the slash and burn technique, it seems that if harvesters in the Amazon could be persuaded to harvest the trees in a more ecologically sound manner, then the soil would produce, and they wouldn’t have to continue with slash and burn harvesting.

It’s all very easy to lay out a solution on paper and say, “If they would do this, we wouldn’t have a deforestation problem.” It’s another thing to be right about what they should do, and still another to convince them that they would benefit by doing it.

There are many issues in this debate. It’s not just a matter of getting the local inhabitants to quit slashing and burning. It’s not just a matter of reforestation. It’s primarily a matter of finding a way that the undeveloped areas of the Amazon and the developed nations can work together to make sure that everyone gets what they need, without hurting anyone else.

This is the kind of negotiation that cries out for the wisdom of King Solomon. The kind of reasoning and negotiation skills he used in finding the true mother of a baby could be well used in figuring out what to do about deforestation.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the wisdom of Solomon, so we’ll have to bungle along as best we can and grapple for a solution with our lesser wisdom.