Q.Describe how deforestation might contribute to global warming.

Step 1. The chapter describes forests as carbon sinks and the 'lungs of the planet', meaning intact forest cover continuously absorbs atmospheric carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and stores it in living biomass.

Step 2. Deforestation, carried out mainly through burning trees and clear cutting, removes this absorption capacity permanently from the affected land, so the CO2 that standing forest would otherwise have taken up remains in the atmosphere instead.

Step 3. Where trees are cleared by burning specifically, the carbon that had been locked up in the wood over decades of growth is released rapidly back into the atmosphere as CO2 -- actively adding a fresh pulse of greenhouse gas rather than merely failing to absorb one. …

Explain deforestation's dual mechanism for worsening global warming: lost carbon-sink capaci …

• Mentioning only 'fewer trees to absorb CO2' without also noting that burning felled trees actively releases stored carbon. …