A summary article by Eric Lambin and Helmut J. Geist entitled “Causes of land-use and land-cover change” succinctly summarizes the reasons for land-use and land-cover change [thanks to Jason English for alerting us to this!].
The Introduction reads,
“Identifying the causes of land-use change requires understanding both how people make land-use decisions (decision-making processes) and how specific environmental and social factors interact to influence these decisions (decision-making context). It is also critical to understand that land use decisions are made and influenced by environmental and social factors across a wide range of spatial scales, from household level decisions that influence local land use practices, to policies and economic forces that can alter land use regionally and even globally.”
They do not discuss the role of these changes within the climate system, however, their article provides an excellent summary of how humans are altering this climate forcing.
Climate Science: Roger Pielke Sr. 