Dave's Inquiry

As an exercise to determine what sort of paper to write I completed exercise 4.1 in The Curious Researcher. This exercise requires me to take the role of Dave, a random person who is willing to listen to my ideas, and me. Dave is asking questions and I am trying to answer them.



Dave                                                                                                                         Me

What's the big deal about this anyway?	Deforestation is a constant problem that is affecting most of the world in extreme ways. In Haiti the forest has been logged out for so long that only about one percent of the forest is even left. Haiti is not the only place either, many countries are the same or rapidly headed that way. Cambodia for instance has fallen down to only 3.2 percent of the country being forested from over 70 percent. Millions of people are affected by and participate in deforestation.
Why is that important though, I mean what is does deforestation cause that it should be so important to know about?	Deforestation causes all sorts of problems from desertification to soil erosion. In many parts of Africa deforestation has gone on for so long that desertification is rapidly occurring and destroying tons of farm land and other useful soil. In places with mountains the forest is often the only mode of soil retention, and as Haiti is experiencing the erosion kills a land. Forests are also a huge carbon sink, retaining unfathomable amounts of carbon. Many people think that elimination of deforestation could cut the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by nearly a fifth. All that is beside the most important factor; how much local people are affected by destruction of what is often their only source of a livelihood.
Why hasn't anyone stopped it if there are so many problems associated with it?	There have been a number of laws made to try and stop deforestation but most are not effective. Most of these laws are not designed to work in developing countries, and sometimes they do not deal with the real causes of the problems. For instance, in many parts of equatorial Africa a large amount of the deforestation is carried on by local people trying make a livelihood off of the land but the only type of farming they know is slash and burn, which is extremely inefficient. So to suddenly stop the deforestation would be to sentence thousands if not millions to starvation.
What all constitutes deforestation?	Any destruction of forest that changes the topography in a fundamental way. Whether that means clear-cutting or selective logging.
Alright this seems important and interesting, but what is your point?	That deforestation is a problem that no one can ignore, because it is affecting people all over the world and it is cause massive problems to most developing countries. I also want to say thought that there is no easy solution. Any way you look at it, deforestation is to complicated to have an easy fix.