has the U.S.A. ever experienced deforestation? and if so where? what states?
606689
I know Indiana and Illinois used to have more forest and have been mostly bared for cropland. Also Northern California.\n\nOn the opposite end, a lot of Colorado has been planted with pines. Where I live it's basically a high desert, and there\nwere no trees in town when it was first built, they were planted by the settlers.
580041
Arizona used to be until they started planting all those exotic trees and flowers.  Now it is doubtful
1055387
deforestation removes the protective layers of the earth ,and the soil dries out by the sun ,if the land has been used for agriculture ,the now dry and dusty soil impregnated with agro chemicals (.including pesticides) ,are easily washed into the rivers by the rains.\nhere the mud effects aquatic life because the waters PH levels are  raised in acidity.\nwhich can affect sexuality as well as kill marine life.\nso most of the Damage is in the rivers and coastal areas and lagoons.\nby the time it all reaches the seas things are too diluted to have a marked difference.\n\nbut there are always limits to tolerance .\nif things go on long anough and in increasing quantities ,the life in the sea will also be affected .it already has with the red killer algae(Red tide),a result of chemical contamination
49486
Interesting, since I just heard on the news that there is some sort of German study that points out that trees do indeed create more greenhouse gases than automobiles.  Or something like that.  They pointed out too, how Reagan's quote is often found on liberal sites for dumb things Republicans have said; but that Reagan may have been more right than we realize.
158763
Trash. America is known for its problem with its waste and is polluting. I'm not one of those activist types, but 13 million tons? Come on.
388950
Honestly, USA. We took over other people's land and called it our own. Our government and President sucks. Most of the people in the country don't know about their own Constitution. And there is always something corrupt in the White House now-a-days.
33784
Most likely the U.S. We have thousands of oil wells offshore,that are just drilled and capped off.Tens of thousands on dry land.And we've never touched Alaska,it has more than the rest of the U.S. combined.
643181
other response gave the actual definition of \n'lumbering.'  Are you referring to deforestation??  The cutting down of trees for wood & paper supply?  In the US, we have a US Forestry Dept.  and to my knowledge each state has its own Forestry Commission.  They deal largely with replanting or reforestation, insect control, fire protection and fighting, as well as landowner services and education.  I would imagine that canada has an overall Forestry agency and perhaps each province has some type of "Commission" similar to what we have in the states.  www.canadian-forests.com                        www.canadian-forests.com/job.html\nwww.nrcan.gc.ca/cfs-scf
397794
None-ay.  In Canada, the forrest is our home-ay.  There is never any lonely hosers here.
492332
extremly bad. americans are very socialy iresponsible. they do alot to harm the environment. theyre laws are not very strict when it comes to protecting the environment. canada recycles alot more than usa. usa doesnt make an efort to recycle. many americans also drive vehicles that polute the air. americans refused to sign the kyoto protocol.
474779
USA! I live in the OC, California, and if we broke off and made our own country we would be the seventh wealthiest country in the world. So right there that's only a small portion of the United States.  Money says a lot in terms of power!
29150
Don't know where you live but in Mexico and probably sothern TX to AZ there is a tree (Leucaena pallida) with edible seeds that really 'clean you out'
825156
The Amazon! In South America. Plenty of animals and plants. Oh, and natives! :-)
821662
Deforestation led to poor soil quality led to the formation of deserts. Don't be an idiot.
815067
Unfortunately, the world needs to come to grips with the fact that Brazil will continue to log rain forest in the Amazon and convert land into low-output farm or range lands.  Tropical rainforest soils are very low in nutrients and threir conversion has serious, probably global, consequences.  There seems to be a pretty good consensus about the problem, but it's not just a simple matter of "big corporations" (they play their part) and a ruined environment.\n\nBesides the big corporations logging, there are a host of small companies that selectively log the most valuable trees.  This has caused the "under count" by many thousands of acres of logged land. (ref. 1)  Often once an area is opened up even in a rudimentary way, subistence "slash and burn" farmers follow, often causing large regional fires. (ref. 2) These are very poor, often uneducated, people who see few alternatives to their life style.  Eventualy, the depleted land often ends up in large ranches.  Those who even try to regulate logging do so at considerable risk as the profits from logging and land conversion are huge.(ref. 3).  Last year saw the worst drought in memory in the Amazon, showing that the environment may have reaced a point of no return. (ref.4)\n\nTo this person, there is no easy solution.  Brazil is a poor country where many of the people live on less than $2 a day.  Nobody has the authority to tell them to stop logging other than the Brazilian government, and even then it is doubtful that such a ban could be enforced given the poverty and lawless conditions in the Amazon.  It's like telling the Columbian's to stop growing coca - the US has spent millions on that effort with little effect.  The solution (if there is one) is to end the demand for tropical hardwood, because it's not just Brazil but every tropical forest that is disappearing fast.  This means providing people with an alternate way to make a living.  The developed world needs to spend the money to give the workers in the Amazon (and other extraction-based poor countries) decent life choices that are sustainable along with a stake in a better world.  I invite you to visit the one.org website which discusses their campaign to do just this. (www.one.org).  Actions speak louder than words.  I have given my favorite organizations site as the last reference, but there are many working for global equity and justice.  Environmental problems in developing countries simply cannot be addressed about without dealing with issues of poverty, disease, and lack of education.
550018
There are many.  What follows are just a few, and I am certain many people would put them into different catagories:\n\nDeforestation is one.  Humans have cut down many areas of natural vegetation and either replaced it with crops or built cities on it.  Plants return oxygen to the atmosphere from carbon dioxide; they reflect light and adsorb heat from the sun.  Both plants and the soil help adsorb water and pollutants.  The more of the planet we pave, the fewer trees and less soil exist to regulate these functions.\n\nPollution is another.  We dump our trash on land and in the oceans.  We create chemical compounds that wouldn't exist in nature and spread them in the land, water, soil and air.  Some directly effect the health of living things; others effect things like the ozone layer, taking away natural system that protect life on this planet.  We dump the heat from our indutrial processes into the atmosphere and water.\n\nAnd, now, we're relatively certain we are creating enough waste of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and other gases in our atmosphere to trap excess heat in the atmosphere.  Enough of it to warm the entire globe just fast enough that plants cannot adapt.  Fertile zones will change.  Crops may fail.  Livestock (and wild animals) that depend on plants for forage may die.  Areas that we now comfortably inhabit - with suitable climates and drinking water may become desert.  Others may end up under rising oceans as glaciers melt.\n\nWhat can we do about it?  Everyone will likely have a different answer.  As an American, I have to say I am more guilty than many others who will read this.  The average American family (about 5 people) owns 9 internal combustion (gasoline or diesel) engines; in a still developing nation like China, there is one engine for every 159 people. If the Chinese lived like the American, how much soot, smog, waste heat, and carbon dioxide would be produced on a single summer day of driving, lawn mowing, and boating?  How much could our planet take?\n\nThe answers aren't easy.  In the short term, we can use applicance - from light bulbs to computers - that are more efficient in how they use the energy we make.  We can think about how to reuse things to create less waste; or not use them at all. (Seriously, how much of your groceries really need to be double bagged?  And does your produce really need to go in another bag inside that?) We can decide whether we really need to build a new 3 bedroom house for ourselves, or if an older, smaller place can be refurbished to suit our tastes. \n\nBut, ultimately, we use too much.  We burn too many things to create the energy we use.  Period.  But, what are the alternatives?  Deforest vast tracts of land to crate wind and solar farms?  I will leave you to draw your own conclusions, but it seems more and more like the future of our existence on Earth depends on the right answer.
1173784
Despite their uniqueness and extraordinary value, tropical rain forests are being destroyed and badly degraded at an unsustainable rate. Some scientists estimate that in the early 1990s tropical forests were being destroyed at a rate of approximately 28 hectares (70 acres) a minute, or about 14 million hectares (35 million acres) each year—an area about the size of the state of Wisconsin. This figure marked a decrease since the 1980s, when approximately 16 million hectares (40 million acres) were destroyed each year, largely due to a reported decline of deforestation in the Amazon River basin in the early 1990s. However, satellite images indicate that rates may have rebounded in the late 1990s as burning in the Amazon increased again. Over the past three decades alone, about 5 million sq km (about 2 million sq mi)—or 20 percent of the world’s tropical forests—have been cleared. During this time, deforestation in tropical Asia reached almost 30 percent. High rates of deforestation are inevitably followed by alarming rates of plant and animal extinction because many rain forest species cannot survive outside their pristine rain forest habitat. Some scientists estimate that dozens of rain forest species are becoming extinct every day.