Climate expert needed!

More than likely, your catastrophic event will have more of an effect on the climate than the disappearance of trees. Something that blows away miles upon miles of forests is going to be more important in the short term, I would think.

Unless they're destroyed by magic, and then I dunno what to tell ya.

Just a "blight" that kills the vegetation and leaves dead trees?

Massive erosion, for starters

Tsu Dho Nimh said:

Just a "blight" that kills the vegetation and leaves dead trees?

Massive erosion, for starters

Click to expand...

So in the long run, that would negatively impact farming and the food supply, yes?

Loss of rainforests:
- an increase CO2 levels in the atmosphere might occur because the forests would not be around to remove the large amounts of CO2 that they would normally do. This could result in a great amount of global warming.
- possible increase in flooding and erosion, especially around the rivers like the Amazon.
- less rain and the altering of weather patterns in the areas where the rainforest existed. Rainforest "create" rain when water evaporates from the forest into the atmosphere to form clouds. I am not a weather expert, but it seems likely that if the forests don't create the normal clouds and rain, it could have a domino effect on weather patterns around the world.

I'm stunned that they removed your thread! How closed-minded!

I agree with what oarsman said--the CO2 thing would be major. I've heard it said that the rain forests are "the lungs of the world." In fact ...

.... I think I recall reading about some proposal that had been made back in the 1970's or 1980's (I forget exactly when) by some coalition of South American nations. They proposed that the rest of the world should pay them big time bucks to maintain the rain forests since it was deemed back then that those forests were responsible for keeping the correct oxygen balance for the whole planet. (Then some scientist elsewhere said no, it's the planktons of the oceans that do most of that work.) Regardless, maybe we of the world should have taken them up on it because now those same South American nations are canabalizing their own rain forests as we speak.

Hi,

The forests not only get rid of CO2 and create O2, but they also help regulate the the globe's temperature and influence weather conditions. Plus, the biodiversity keeps the environment in check - get rid of a whole ecosystem, who knows what nasties might populate it instead to need controlling.

Think your best bet would not be a weather site, but any of the plethora of eco sites. There's a huge amount of information available on web pages alone, without you having to actually ask.

Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Steve

And while the rain forests are doing their 02/CO2 thing there is also a lot of water vapor going up and coming down. Desertification comes to mind.

One theory was African desert becoming 'wet' again and the Amazon turning to desert. It would change weather patterns for the entire world.

With Speed and Violence by Fred Pearce was a very good book on this subject. Theories abound and the climate models are scary.