Attempt at ELI5: We cut down a tree, and not much changes (except for the sound, maybe :). We cut down a forest, and things still seem okay. We replace many fo

Attempt at ELI5: We cut down a tree, and not much changes (except for the sound, maybe :). We cut down a forest, and things still seem okay. We replace many forests with pastures, and everything appears fine. We prevent forests from regrowing, and everything continues to function as expected. However, if we continue this pattern for a long time, eventually the forests reach a breaking point. They lose their ability to retain water and generate new rain, causing them to dry out and cease sending moisture further inland. With even less rainfall in those areas, the forests dry up and die out, worsening the problem. https://phys.org/news/2022-08-global-forest-area-capita-decreased.html https://phys.org/news/2022-08-global-forest-area-capita-decr... Over the past 60 years, the global forest area has declined by 81.7 million hectares, a loss that contributed to the more than 60% decline in global forest area per capita. https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/whats-driving-deforestation https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/whats-driving-deforestation Just four commodities—beef, soy (for animal feed), palm oil, and wood products—drive the majority of tropical deforestation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotic_pump https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotic_pump