A local man undertook it as his life's work to re-plant as many trees as he could, and to encourage others to do the same. Now, a generation or two later, the climate of the area has changed noticably. The presence of trees changed not only the localized microclimate, but influenced the overall climate in the area, including temperature and humidity. Here in the U. S., the timber industry typically clearcuts forests, then burns the stumps to totally kill everything, then reseeds with a monoculture of commercial, nursery-grown species. Logging is a problem in tropical rainforest areas because desirable species of trees are few and widely-spread, and loggers end up having to cut a lot of other trees to make roads to haul out even one desirable tree.
Urbanization is a major problem.
Cities and their suburbs take the place of both wild land and agricultural areas. More and more land is paved over as roads or covered with buildings, etc. Burning of fossil fuel, and other activities in cities change the local climate. Usually, things like tornados do not occur as frequently in big cities as in rural areas, probably also due to the difference in air temperature. Dams are constructed to cause major changes in the watercourse of a given river-system.