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• Siobhan Watters
• Cambridge
• Canada

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To what extent has mass deforestation made us more susceptible to extreme weather?

The relationship between deforestation and the incidence of flooding is well known and something I understand. I have wondered recently how deforestation may have left other parts of this world similarly vulnerable to weather events such as tornadoes or hurricanes, now that we lack the natural barrier to violent winds that large forests may have represented. I am sure that research and conclusions to the question are already out there, but is it as commonly known as those other factors of climate change we hear about more often, i.e., pollution and decreasing biodiversity? We constantly hear about how our actions have produced extreme weather, but not often in the context of letting it affect us all the more extremely because we have compromised an essential form of protection.