What is the true value of trees … we see them every day … some are beautiful, some can be deadly poisonous, some are annoying and some are bountiful; but are you aware of the many other benefits of trees and why we need them to survive on planet earth? Perhaps we should stop taking our trees for granted and learn more about them, how to conserve them, and plant many millions more.
Through photosynthesis trees produce the gas that we cannot live without: oxygen (O2). As we breathe in, our bodies take in oxygen and when we breathe out, we release carbon dioxide (CO2). Trees do the opposite: they take in CO2 and release O2 [ … ] and makes the air that we and animals can breathe
From Benefits of Trees
Benefits of Trees
- Purifying the air that we breath
- Reducing carbon emissions. Trees clean our air: “Trees absorb carbon dioxide and potentially harmful gasses, such as sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, from the air and release oxygen. One large tree can supply a day’s supply of oxygen for four people.”
- Reducing air, water, noise pollution
- Preventing erosion around our homes
- Saving energy all year and acting as windbreaks; they keep homes cool in summer and warm in winter
- Reducing water pollution and flooding: “In one day, one large tree can lift up to 100 gallons of water out of the ground and discharge it into the air.”
- Offering shade, food and shelter for humans, domestic and wild animals
- Providing homes to countless birds, insects, and other living things
- Providing a bounty of food, including nuts, apples, mangoes, and bananas
- Providing medicinal benefits; e.g. did you know aspirin is derived from the willow tree
Economic Value of Trees
- Lumber shipments declined by 17.5% to $11.9 billion (in 2006)
- Canada was the second largest producer of lumber in the world, with 16% of worldwide production (2005)
- The sawmill and wood preservation industry directly employed 54,400 direct jobs and 90,600 in indirect jobs, totalling 145,0000 Canada-wide (2006)
- Harvesting raw logs employed 60,000 workers (2006)
- The wood chips and paper industry employed another 87,000 workers (2006)
Ecological Value of Trees
One reason rainforests are called ‘closed’ forests is because they are closed ecosystems. Their living parts – plants, animals, and microrganisms, and their physical parts – soil, nutrients and water – are totally integrated. If this dynamic is badly disturbed by fire, clearing, or erosion, nutrients are then lost and cannot be recycled. Extensively damaged rainforest may never return to a pristine state if continually disturbed. But when conditions are right, rainforests are rapid colonisers, advancing around a metre a year.
Sign at Jindalba Rainforest, Daintree Coast, Queensland, Australia
Trees & Climate change
What are Carbon Emissions
Carbon dioxide (CO2). A minor but very important component of the atmosphere, carbon dioxide is released through natural processes such as respiration and volcano eruptions and through human activities such as deforestation, land use changes, and burning fossil fuels. Humans have increased atmospheric CO2 concentration by a third since the Industrial Revolution began. This is the most important long-lived “forcing” of climate change.
NASA Global Climate Change
These tall trees are not only giant sugar factories feeding the forest, they are high-rise apartments housing countless other plants, animals and microorganisms.
Sign at Jindalba, Daintree Rain Forest, Queensland Australia
What Else Can We Do
- Write to your local Member of Parliament to save our boreal forests, temperate and tropical rain forests; which generate almost half the oxygen in the world
- Start a tree petition. Petition your local municipality, provincial, and federal governments to set aside large pieces of land as reserves and parks throughout Canada.
- Donate to the World Wildlife Fund to protect a rainforest
- Plant trees. If every person in Canada (35 million people in 2013) planted two trees per year we would have an 70 million more trees per annum in Canada. Plant One Million Trees project in Melbourne, Australia Greening the West
- Start by planting a tree in your own home garden or neighbourhood for a cleaner, healthier environment. How to plant a tree at home
- Think before cutting down trees and when you do plant two or more in its place
- Buy a living Christmas tree
- Reduce your use of paper products, as many trees are logged for pulp and paper
- Consume less trees in our daily lives in simple things like using a cloth instead of paper towels, reduce and recycle paper packaging … it does not have to be complicated
- Use sustainable wood products such as bamboo floors and textiles
- Take care of our forests and streams. Join a local community organization to keep our stream’s clean
There is no easy answer to this question of reducing or reversing greenhouse gas emissions. Preserving and planting trees is one way to slow and help reverse global warming trends. Deforestation, especially of tropical rain-forests is not only increasing carbon emissions but as well destroying the habitat of countless animals and plants living in these areas. I recommend you speak to others; learn, and of course … plant a tree wherever you can. It will improve your life.
Toba Inlet photo courtesy C. Czembor
Photo used with permission (Limited copyright)
Links & References
- UNESCO World Heritage Site, Queensland, Australia
- The Rare Cassowary 2nd largest bird in the world is on the Endangered Species list with only 1200 remaining
- Plants are air purifiers Botanical society of America
- Greenhouse Gas Emissions USA EPA
- Tree and Carbon facts from Arbor Environmental Alliance
- Larger older trees absorb carbon dioxide quicker
- Here is a simple carbon emissions calculator to see how you are doing
- The story of salmon, bears and trees (and how trees grow on salmon) from David Suzuki Foundation
- The Canadian Boreal forest – to protect and preserve
- Tree responses to drought from Oxford Journals
- More tree planting tips from Trees Ontario
- CAP Forest fires a growing concern for B.C this summer
- BC reforestation crisis
- BC Forest Industry Economic Impact Study January 2015
- Deforestation and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions – Author Toni Johnson
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot Spot
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
‘Til it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
They took all the trees
And put them in a tree museum
Then they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see ’em
Don’t it always seem to go,
That you don’t know what you’ve got
‘Til it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Copyright: Emi music publishing, Crazy Crow Music, Stellar Songs Ltd.
Writers: Marc Williams, Joni Mitchell, Timothy Mckenzie
