Tree (Photo credit: @Doug88888)
Trees across the world are dying and not just because the planet is getting warmer.
Trees have been treated poorly for centuries, we’ve fragmented forests into slivers, cut them down in vast quantities and selectively bred them to suit our own purposes. Air pollution and soil abuse have also taken a toll. Scientists admit trees have been poorly studied in the past but this is now changing.
What is known suggests that trees are essential to the well-being of the planet and perhaps even us humans as well. Trees are the planet’s heat shield cooling temperatures beneath them and blocking cancer causing ultra-violet rays. They filter our air and water and soak up carbon dioxide. Forests slow the run-off of rainfall as they tie the soil together with their root system. Many damaging floods in various parts of the world have been caused by selfish deforestation. A failure to understand how an ecosystem based on trees works.
Some scientists have discovered that as the leaves of a tree fall and decompose, humic acid can leaches into the river and eventually, the ocean and help to fertilise plankton which, of course, is a critical food source for many forms of sea life. Recently, Japanese fisherman have discovered that by planting trees along coasts and rivers they have helped restore fish and oyster stocks.
Lots of chemicals are emitted by trees, a great many of them beneficial to human health. They can contain compounds that can be antibacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral, they may even prevent cancer.
We need to plant more trees and prevent them being cut down and destroyed needlessly. Large scale biomass from forests is an unwanted fuel source.
Proverb: “when it the best time to plant a tree?”, Twenty years ago, “The second best time?” Now!
