Deforestation in Georgia

We’ve all heard of deforestation and probably seen it. Deforestation is the removal and or destruction of trees. This is a major environmental issue in many parts of our large world. Such as Brazil, The Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Indonesia, and the United States. For this article, I’m mainly going to be focusing on the US, more specifically Georgia.  

The population in cities like Atlanta, Suwanee, Alpharetta, Woodstock, Milton, and others is growing rapidly. So, to create more space, companies have been cutting down trees for apartments, townhomes, office buildings, shopping centers and restaurants. Traffic engineers are also cutting down trees along I-95 because of the amount of tree-related accidents. Whatever the cause, residents are becoming angry. This is a very reasonable reaction as “In 2023, it lost 54.6 Kha(thousands of hectares) of natural forest, equivalent to 54.3 Mt of CO₂ (carbon dioxide) emissions” according to the Global Forest Watch. Unfortunately, the population is not stopping its growth and is continuing to rise at a record rate. Therefore trees are most likely going to continue being cut down to make more space. 

About 60% of Georgia’s land is forested and about 41 million metric tons of CO₂ are stored in those forests. When deforestation occurs the CO₂ is released back into the atmosphere. CO₂ is a greenhouse gas that absorbs and radiates heat, which is what keeps our planet warm. When there is too much CO₂ in our atmosphere more heat is trapped causing what we call global warming. That’s why keeping trees up is so important to the environment. In addition to keeping our air clean, trees in Georgia also provide over 100,000 jobs and around 30 million dollars in economic value.   

The most obvious solution to this problem is to replant trees. On the other hand, one of the more creative ones is: turning abandoned/dead malls into apartments. According to Business Insider “Turning a tiny fraction of America's dead strip malls into housing could create 700,000 new apartments.” This makes this solution a lot more persuasive. This solution has already been put to use in a mall called the Arcade Providence, America’s first mall. It was turned into about 48 tiny homes. I have some ideas in Georgia where this concept can be used: North Point Mall, Gwinnett Place Mall, or Shannon Mall. All of these malls are dead or dying. Another solution was turning old schools into parks. This solution is also already being put to use. In fact  “Oklahoma City planning to transform abandoned Dewey Elementary into community park” according to Fox 25 news. 

Deforestation is a huge problem and a factor in global warming. That fact is getting realized slowly and will hopefully be fixed shortly. With all the creative minds we have in this world it shouldn’t theoretically take long. But we’ll never surely know until we reach the point when it is fixed. 

Works Cited

Palmer, Grant. “Oklahoma City Planning to Transform Abandoned Dewey Elementary into Community Park.” KOKH, 2 Nov. 2023, okcfox.com/news/local/dewey-elementary-capitol-view-neighborhood-new-park-city-of-oklahoma-city-councilwoman-nikki-nice-shannon-entz. Accessed 13 May 2024.Relman, Eliza. 

“Turning a Tiny Fraction of America’s Dead Strip Malls into Housing Could Create 700,000 New Apartments.” Business Insider, 3 Nov. 2023, www.businessinsider.com/dead-strip-malls-housing-market-construction-real-estate-cities-suburbs-2023-11.Vizzuality. 

“Georgia, United States Deforestation Rates & Statistics | GFW.” Www.globalforestwatch.org, www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/country/USA/11/?category=undefined. 

“Georgia Leads the Way in Urban Tree Loss | Trees Atlanta.” Www.treesatlanta.org, www.treesatlanta.org/news/georgia-leads-the-way-in-urban-tree-loss/#:~:text=Since%20the%20population%20of%20Atlanta.