Final answer:
True, deforestation contributes to regional climate changes by causing warmer, drier conditions, affecting rainfall and agricultural productivity, and contributing to carbon emissions and global warming.
Step-by-step explanation:
True, deforestation can cause changes in regional climate. Forests, including those on Borneo in Indonesia, have been cut down for uses such as oil palm plantations, which leads to significant environmental changes. In developing regions like Central America and Sub-Saharan Africa, deforestation is often driven by economic needs but results in warmer and drier conditions locally. Research from Nature Climate Change indicates that tropical deforestation significantly increases diurnal temperature variability and disrupts rainfall patterns, thereby affecting agricultural productivity and exacerbating the current challenges of a changing climate. Moreover, carbon emissions associated with deforestation are a major contribution to global climate change, with 12-17% of human-induced emissions deriving from this source.
Further highlighting the impact, the destruction of forests leads to reduced carbon sequestration and increased carbon release into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. Changes in land use, such as deforestation, urbanization, and desertification, result in alterations to Earth's albedo and have climatic effects that can be significant at a regional scale and contribute to the overall global climate change. Therefore, deforestation not only affects the immediate area but also contributes to broader climate change issues, reinforcing the critical need for sustainable forest management and conservation strategies.