Week 1 Assignment Sustainable Living Guide Contributions, Part One of Four: Sustaining Biodiversity and Ecosystems Your Term: Deforestation Deforestation is the destruction of natural habitats for agricultural and urban use. Over two thousand plus years ago, more than 70 percent of European, North American, and Asian were forested land—now countries like China and North America have less than 35 percent of forested land. Many people are aware of how we have all cultivated land from our housing, farming, and manufacturing needs; however, not many know what it means for us as a planet to have our forests decrease drastically over the years. According to the world wildlife fund, our forests cover more than 30 percent of the Earth’s land surface, produce oxygen, absorb carbon dioxide, and much different wildlife depends on our forests as their natural habitat. The excess grazing of our forests leads to biodiversity loss and eventually extinction.
