Perhaps the most visible effects of global warming are the sights of melting ice caps and retreating glaciers.  These events contribute to global warming through the loss of the albedo effect, with land absorbing heat rather than the snow and ice reflecting the radiation.  These land melts are causing sea levels to rise, flooding large areas with loss of habitats resulting in the extinction of both plant and animal species.

Global warming and human intervention are radically reducing the natural habitats of flora and fauna through soil erosion, flooding and agricultural destruction.  Birds are nesting earlier than usual and not breeding because of lack of food; and animals have to move from their traditional environment to survive.  Similarly, invasive predators – both plant and animal - are threatening indigenous species.  From the destruction of cloud forests and coral reefs to the thinning of sea ice, animals and plants are dying out.  The diversity of nature that we are used to is now under threat.

Increased temperatures and severe weather conditions are causing land to become unproductive with lower yields for crops.  Severe weather is eroding land through torrential downpours washing the soil nutrients away; with winds blowing away the dry topsoil.  Deforested land contributes to the serious landslides we now regularly see.  Unproductive land forces local people to move to other marginal areas, putting pressure on the land leading to further erosion.  There are a wide variety of causes of desertification, many of which are reversible.  However if the semi-arid land is not actively improved quickly the land can be irretrievably lost to desert.

As threatening as global warming is to food production human impact is making matters worse.  The increase in global populations requires more land to be used for food production, often at the expense of strip felling forests.  In many areas the land is not suitable for sustainable food production and the land soon deteriorates to desert.  Treepak’s solutions to enable mass reforestation help these problems.  And by producing valuable products and by-products regenerate local economies.