>it is not something we can change. On the contrary, deforestation has a huge effect on the water cycle. Most people don't realize that if you're more than ~20

>it is not something we can change. On the contrary, deforestation has a huge effect on the water cycle. Most people don't realize that if you're more than ~200 km inland most of your precipitation comes from transpiration by plants upwind instead of evaporation. How do we know? Oxygen isotopes. Basically, the differential fractionation of oxygen (and hydrogen) isotopes in water during evaporation vs. transpiration allows you to trace where your rainfall comes from. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v496/n7445/abs/nature11983.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v496/n7445/abs/nature11... Also, don't cut down forests thinking it'll fix global warming. Overall they have a net cooling effect. What you'll do instead is create deserts downwind.