Thinking Point
Dr Ravinder Pall Saini
The writer is I.F.S. (retd.), PhD. (Forest Entomology), MBA (HRM), Member, Board of Management, Forest Research University, Dehradun
"Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.”
― Herman Hesse, Bäume. Betrachtungen und Gedichte
In the rush of everyday life, it is easy to forget what a great role trees play in our lives. They've been with us forever - they grow on the roads, in the parks, on the edges of fields, in the forests and gardens. We often pass them indifferently, not realizing that they are one of the most important pillars of life on Earth.
Trees are nature's oxygen factories. Thanks to the process of photosynthesis, they absorb carbon dioxide and produce the oxygen that we breathe. One gets as much oxygen as it needs to live as many as 10 people! But this is only the beginning of their merit. Trees regulate air temperature, retain moisture in the soil, and protect against erosion and floods. Their crowns provide shade on hot days and the leaves filter the air from dust and harmful substances. In cities, they lower the temperature by even a few degrees, which is of great importance in the time of climate change. They are also home to thousands of species - birds, insects, mammals, mushrooms and plants. Each tree is a micro world teeming with life. Without them, not only nature, but also our spiritual life would become impoverished.
Trees function to produce micro water droplets when they release oxygen that causes the atmosphere to cool down, resulting in the clustering of clouds, and the ultimate result is rain. The process helps the Earth to function as a self-balanced and self-sufficient planet, making it a habitat for humans. Planting more trees adds more to the beautification of the earth. Trees help us prevent air pollution and soil erosion. Trees are structured with strong roots lying deep into the soil. When the water pressure increases due to heavy rains, the root holds the soil, or the water forces the ground to dislocate to the river streams. Climate change is one of the biggest concerns; the plantation of trees helps to balance the climate of a region and prevent sudden climate disturbance.
Importance of trees
One tree provides enough oxygen for 5 people. Just 30 trees can absorb our full annual carbon production. Trees filter our water and soil, and fight erosion. They increase neighbourhood desirability, escalate property value up to 20 % and can save energy and money for heating and cooling up to 15 %. Trees are of invaluable importance to our environment and to human wellbeing. They give us clean water to drink, air to breathe, shade and food to humans, animals, and plants. They provide habitats for numerous species, firewood for cooking and heat, materials for buildings and places of spiritual, cultural and recreational importance.
1. An average tree in an urban city area generally lives for only about 8 years, not more. Not that's anything for life expectancy.
2. A single tree is good enough to take in as much carbon as a car emits on running 26000 miles.
3. Over 60000 tree species are known to mankind. Most of them are found in three countries namely Brazil, Columbia, and Indonesia.
4.Trees reduce the greenhouse effect by removing carbon dioxide from the air and releasing oxygen. Each year a mature tree produces enough oxygen for 10 people.
5.Trees are also an effective sound barrier and can limit noise pollution. Recent research shows that trees also help reduce the stress of modern life.
6.Trees in themselves benefit the environment and the landscape, but they are also an integral part of the ecosystem providing benefits to wildlife and biodiversity. Trees, especially older or veteran trees and those in groups or woodlands, provide habitats for native ground flora such as bluebells and fauna, particularly bats, red squirrels, and invertebrates.
Significant facts about trees:
1. Trees regulate the water cycle: The water cycle is the process by which water falls to the ground as rain. It is then absorbed by trees and other plants, then released back into the air as transpiration. Continuously ‘drinking’ whenever it can, a single tree will typically release around 250-400 gallons of water back into the air every single day. Therefore, trees are crucial for maintaining optimum levels of humidity in our air. They also ensure that the water cycle (which provides the fresh water we rely on to stay alive) remains in balance. Deforestation severely disrupts this cycle and can put our supplies of fresh water (which makes up just 3% of the planet’s total water) in threat.
2. Trees provide jobs: All the way from rainforest care to tree planting, from fruit harvests to biological and botanical research, trees provide a multitude of jobs. For many small, often rural communities, without trees there would be no way to sustain the local people. While it could be said that deforestation too creates jobs, this work is not sustainable in the long term. Once the trees are gone, the work too gets reduced. Forest conservation and reforestation make up most arboreal jobs in the world.
3. Trees are a vital habitat for wildlife: A varied range of birds, insects and mammals live in forest habitats. These organisms have adapted to their environment over centuries and are reliant on it. While the larger or more exciting animals (elephants, tigers, gibbons, macaques, sunbirds, or hornbills) may be the first that come to mind, a seemingly simple tree may well be home to hundreds or even thousands more creatures of a much smaller size. Snakes, frogs, millipedes, ants, termites, spiders, beetles, moths – all of them depend on the safety of their forest home. It has been estimated that if deforestation continues at its current rate, it will result in the extinction of around 28,000 different species in the next 25 years. Many of them would disappear without ever having been discovered.
4. They improve the soil quality: Trees play a super important role in improving the quality of the soil around them in numerous ways. As part of their carbon filtering properties, they remove carbon and other noxious substances from the soil, allowing other plants to flourish. Good quality soil should contain no more than 2% carbon. However, in heavily forested areas it can be as low as 0.05%. In fact, land surrounded by trees can double crop production thanks to the soil-purifying effect of trees. Trees also contribute vital minerals to the soil by shedding its foliage and allowing it to decompose as mulch.
5. Trees prevent soil erosion: The lands that have been deforested are much more vulnerable to desertification. Using their trunks and foliage, trees form a natural barrier to winds and floods. This barrier slows the forces of nature down and helps to prevent bad weather from becoming a natural disaster capable of devastating large areas. Sundarbans in Bengal is one example where the focus is on planting mangrove trees. These trees create a natural form of protection to the land and sustains a tiger population – only place in the world where tigers exist in mangroves. Tree roots perform a vital function in holding the soil together, preventing it from erosion.
6. Trees as a food source: Sustainably grown, trees are a source of so many vital foodstuffs. It is a well-known that the world’s population would have more than enough to eat if everyone followed a vegan diet. We can get plenty of nutrients from trees alone. From nuts to fruits, to the syrup created from flowers and resins and the spices created from aromatic barks (cinnamon being one example) trees are an amazing source of food for humans.
7. Trees contend noise pollution: As well as combatting air pollution, trees have a role in combatting the negative impact of noise pollution. Not only can the noise pollution caused by humans interfere with an animal's sonar and navigation systems, but it can also disrupt whole ecosystems, The foliage of trees has a muffling effect, diminishing the level of sound that reaches it.
8. Trees resist light pollution: Tree foliage also provides a barrier against unwanted light pollution. Newly planted trees have helped reduce the effect of pollution all over the world.
9. Trees fight climate change: One of the reasons for global warming and climate change is the levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, known for its heat-trapping properties. In a rapidly warming planet, the excessive levels of carbon dioxide that humans are producing is literally trapping the heat in our atmosphere. As a tree grows, it absorbs carbon dioxide from the air through a process called photosynthesis. It stores the carbon as wood and releases oxygen molecules. For this reason, forests act like a giant filter. They remove the greenhouse gas from the air and only disperse it back into the air if they are burned or decomposed back into the earth. This is why the effects of deforestation are two-fold. Not only are nature’s O2 filters being removed, but they’re often burned afterwards, releasing any carbon they were storing back into the atmosphere. Once a tree is fully grown, it removes less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it is no longer creating as much new wood: the additional carbon is not necessary. With responsible woodland management, older trees can be carefully harvested to absorb the maximum amount of carbon from the air – creating a ‘carbon sink’.
10. Trees create oxygen: There is truth in the saying that the forest is the green lung of our planet. Not only do trees remove unhealthy air but they also actually replace it with clean air. Contemplating about two-thirds of the human body is made up of oxygen, that is good news for us! Without oxygen, the game would be over for the human species. Since photosynthesis is the largest creator of oxygen, we should probably make sure we’re taking good care of our trees.
11. Trees restore good health: You don’t need to be a scientist to notice the difference in the way you feel when walking through a forest. One might have felt stressed out, worrying about work but as soon as one enters the forest, it is like entering a different world. One becomes calmer, breath deepens and mind is not racing as much. Trees heal our body, mind, and soul.
Trees are our lifeline. What most of us know is that they absorb carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen which is important for our survival. Despite knowing the great truth, we do nothing to preserve them. Let's endeavour to plant, save, and conserve these most invaluable trees all around the world.
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