Plant a Tree
Trees are everywhere, and they come in all shapes and sizes. They have different leaves, bark, and fruits, while almost never taking the same shape as their neighbor tree. Do you ever just take a step back and admire a tree? The cool thing is, with deforestation set aside, trees admire you! Humans and trees (plants) run in tandem by feeding off one another. As you will see throughout this blog, trees are a top tier provider and quite frankly a swiss army knife to say the least. They help us breathe, provide us with food, serve as a source of energy, protect us from UV rays (sunburn), provide materials for our homes, and much more. It is vital to our species that we stress the importance of trees to each other for the sake of future generations. They are one of the many pieces to the puzzle of sustainability for our existence, and our home… planet Earth.
The goal of this blog is to introduce and educate you on the many superpower that trees have, give you a sense of what is going on globally in terms of deforestation, and roundup with how you can get involved with reforestation as a mere individual.
Tree Super Powers
Carbon Sequestering Machines: one thing you hear a lot of in the news today is the carbon content being released into our atmosphere. If you are unfamiliar, carbon (primarily C02) is contributing to exponential global warming trends. It is a very complex problem that we face that doesn’t only highlight the exhaust from our cars or the energy we use in our homes… but stems from most processes we utilize in our day to day. The neat thing about trees, is that it is a natural occurring carbon sequestering machine (What is Carbon Sequestering?). What this means is that trees will naturally store carbon through the process of photosynthesis. Since photosynthesis isn’t 100% efficient in making oxygen and sugar, some carbon is leftover and stored within the tree itself.
Trees top tier carbon sequesters and widely recognized as one of the best means for carbon sequestration in the world. According to an article published by Penn State University in 2020, depending on the year, the United State’s forests alone can sequester up to 16% of the yearly emissions (depending on the year) [How Forests Store Carbon]. Currently no technology can match that (just you wait and see). This technically only addresses the natural carbon capture, and we haven’t even mentioned the fact that forest management can step up that percentage through proper means and methods!
To learn more about trees and carbon sequestration, check out this website; Forest Research & Carbon Sequestration | Best Carbon Capture Trees
Oxygen Producers: Just a little bit ago I introduced the term of photosynthesis, and if you can remember back to your 4th grade science class, photosynthesis is the process plant matter (trees) undergo to convert water, sunlight and carbon dioxide into sugar (glucose) and oxygen. The next superpower of trees that I would like to address is that trees produce a good bit of the oxygen we breathe (if you are a human and not Silicon-based life) [Photosynthesis]. Many have tried to estimate just how many trees it takes to fill one person’s oxygen needs in a year. It turns out that we breathe a lot! This study posted by Science Focus says that a human will breathe in roughly 740kg (1630lbs) per year, but the good news is that this study estimates only 7 to 8 trees would be needed to back that person’s breathing. That is quite substantial, given that trees are just a small sector of oxygen producing organisms on planet Earth. Just remember, pay tribute to the trees every once in a while, because they allow you to take a rich and fresh breathe of air!
To find out more about oxygen production by trees, go to: How Much Oxygen Does a Tree Produce? | US Forest Service; Oxygen Production
Food Bearing Vessels: While we are on the topic of photosynthesis, let’s visit the other product from the process… energy (glucose). With a blend of energy from photosynthesis in the form of glucose and other nutrients from the soil, trees are able to grow flowers. Why flowers you might ask? Because flowers are the sexual reproduction stage for producing a fruit. This process comes in many varieties (How Does a Fruit Tree Grow Fruit?) being that, flowers can be self sufficient in reproduction, or need to depend upon wind, birds, or insects to transport pollen from the male to female parts. With the correct conditions, the specific tree will bear it’s fruits in their proper growing season windows by the boat load. For example, oranges are in the top five, if not, top three of fruits harvested globally each year. A singular fruit tree can produce 3-5 thousand oranges in a year’s harvest (Orange - Purdue University). Outside of oranges, trees globally produce an immense amount of consumables for all living organisms such as nuts (almonds), fruits (figs & coconuts) and vegetables (plantains). Here’s another tip of the cap to trees all across the world for providing us fruit salads, pies, and many other household name meals.
Other means of providing food: Yes trees are a prey to many kinds, and can be consumed in many ways. Humans mostly consume the fruits from trees in the form of jackfruit, apples, and chestnuts.. but what about everything else? There are leaves, branches, bark, the trunk and it’s roots! If you recall, important nutrients, water and glucose are coursing through the tree in all sectors with different compositions…but in theory proves that all parts of a tree are edible and life sustaining. It primarily depends on your taste and digestive system. Yes, the vast majority consumes bark as a staple for their diets [Animals Eat Bark]. Humans do too, but most do not realize that! One of the most common examples is cinnamon, which comes from the bark of the Cinnamomum tree.
Other species eat leaves from trees such as giraffes, deer, and many different types of insects. Then there are organisms that just want to devour the whole tree such as termites and fungi. Fungi is the more interesting kingdom that devours trees. Fungi actually work in tandem with trees, by making up the wood wide web by transporting water & essential nutrients from fungi and plants. In some way or another, fungi then begin the process of breaking down trees. Fungi is the world’s most effective decomposers, and if it wasn’t for the efforts of fungi we would all be buried in piles of organic matter (including trees).
So give another big thanks to trees for feeding the vast majority of both plant and animal kingdoms on a daily basis. To find out more about trees being consumed, head to: Fungi Break Down Wood | Insects That Eat Wood | Humans Can Eat Bark
Natural Air-conditioners: As the sun’s rays make their way through the vacuum of space, past the space debris field, through the atmosphere and down to the Earth’s surface… sun rays undergo a process of reflection, refraction and absorption. For less confusion, let us focus on absorption, because that best pertains to trees. Light rays that end up striking the tree (leaves), gets absorbed by the process of photosynthesis. But if that sun ray misses the leaves, it can get lost to the ground. Potentially, if the ground is bare at the location of impact, the light becomes trapped in the earth’s soil, and reflected back as infrared or heat.
This is why it is always cooler underneath a tree! The sun rays become trapped by the tree and is converted into energy through photosynthesis, rather than contributing to the natural warming effect of the Earth. This is the scientific term of shade, where light cannot create heat in the same way it would without an overhead obstruction. With that being said, trees are a wonderful, natural occurring air conditioner [Why is it Cooler Around Trees?]. The EPA claims that surface temperatures (like your skin) will feel 20-45 degrees Fahrenheit cooler under the protection of a tree, in contrast to when that surface is fully unshaded [EPA Study on Shade Effects].
Energy Conservationists: Trees are also expert energy conservationists because of their shading abilities. If positioned correctly around a structure such as your home or office building, it can provide that natural cooling effect in the heat of the day throughout the year [Planting Trees for Energy Conservation]. Just as advertised above, surface temperatures are greatly reduced when shaded by a tree. With the correct positioning, a tree can reduce surface temperatures on your house to a certain percentage. This then effects your building’s thermal mass [What is Thermal Mass?]and it’s time lag effect [Thermal Lag]. This goes into a lot of material science that wouldn’t be completely appropriated to trees, but the long story short is that a tree can cool your home, which then decreases the amount of heat propagation. Without heat propagation, the efficiency of your cooling system goes up (HVAC Unit) and your monthly electric bill goes down. Effectively saving you money, and improving your eco-friendly status.
Protectors from UV Rays: Ah yes, and who can forget.. trees are the ultimate protectors of Ultra Violet radiation. Of course you could stay indoors, but if you wanted to get outside and keep your pale skin, trees provide you with options. As previously discussed, trees block sun rays from striking the ground due to absorption for photosynthesis. When in the shade of a tree, you have less opportunity to receive exposure to sunlight, which in turn means you are less likely to catch a sun burn [Maple Trees Are Expert Protectors].
Tellers of time: Trees mark the seasons [Seasons of Trees] all due to the concentration of chlorophyll[What is Chlorophyll]. Long story short, chlorophyll is the substance within leaves that traps sunlight in the process of photosynthesis. When conditions of temperature and sunlight exposure are at it’s peak (summer), chlorophyll is at it’s highest concentration. Chlorophyll at its peak in the summer is green in color, and once the temperature and sunlight exposure start to decrease, chlorophyll begins the natural downward trend to its death. This is the reason why most trees’ leaves change color in the fall and then fall off in a decayed state in the winter. Once temperature and sunlight exposure time increase past a tree’s threshold, leaves begin to grow out in the spring while flowers begin to bloom.
With the exception to evergreen trees, through this cyclic color changing process, trees tell the time. Many ancient peoples after the dawn of the Anthropocene era relied on two visual confirmations for growing seasons. They either used the movement of celestial bodies (stars) or the color of the trees. Depending on your geologic positioning with respect to climate. Trees can tell you when your climate is warming or cooling, when to plant & harvest crops, and if you want to get into astronomy, they can tell you the position of the Earth revolving around the sun [Astronomical Seasons].
History Experts: Trees can tell time as we discussed above on a yearly basis, but what about telling time for more than just a year? Trees are natural historians, by means of preserving life, telling a tale through their growth, and can be preserved via fossilization.
Let’s first talk about the short-term story telling that trees can provide. As you may know, trees grow outward and upward over the course of it’s life. Each year that passes by, a tree will form new cells, and this shows the amount of cells that can be produced in one growing season [How Tree Rings Form]. The larger the ring, the greater the growing season, and the skinnier the concentric ring, the worse the growing season is. This is the case for all tree bearing locations around the world, because tree rings are dependent on the seasons where temperature is a factor, or the dry season where water consumption takes effect on growth. So given this tid-bit of information, a tree’s cross-section can tell a great tale. Tree cross section’s tell us about the tree’s surroundings, inhabitance, climate, and natural disasters. Trees can tell us when fires occur because the tree rings become charred. Trees can tell us the abundance of growth in the forest by the tree rings deforming as the tree leans or bends to find sunlight for survival. Tree rings also tell a tale of drought or over abundance of water in the area by it’s ring thickness [How Trees Tell Time & Climate History]. Thanks to trees, experts have a way of looking into the past to study many relevant realms that effect us, such as climate history, fire ecology, water resource, and forest management.
Ok now let’s discuss long-term history. Many different types of trees develop resins that harden and overtime develop into amber fossils [Identifying Ancient Trees From Their Amber]. These ambers can be analyzed to identify a tree’s age in the history of the Earth. Not only can ambers tell the history of the tree, but quite possibly the organisms and the climate surrounding the tree through the capture of small organisms within the resin fossil. Ambers are just one side of the fossil story with respect to trees. Trees can indeed become fossils themselves, and the trees that do become fossilized are called petrified wood. The process of petrifying a tree is very complex. The tree has to escape two death sentences to make it there, which are fires and fungi. By escaping these two end game results, trees have a higher probability of becoming petrified. It takes millions of years, because minerals from the soil have to be just right to move into the wood and turn the wood into stone. Without the right conditions, it is just more added organic soil [Trees Can Become A Fossil].
Erosion Resistors: Since the dawn of agriculture at the beginning of the Anthropocene, people have been clearing land to produce food and other products for consumption. How do you clear land for production? Eliminate trees. When natural substances such as trees are removed from the landscape, soil is then exposed to the process of erosion [Erosion Definition]. A tree’s roots are a vital key to preventing erosion, because roots from big to small sizes bind and hold the soil together with the help of the wood wide web (mycelium & plant roots). With the presence of tree roots, the wood wide web is much stronger. Roots provide extra surface tension and an increased friction factor to reduce the probability of soil being swept away by wind, gravity and water [How Trees Prevent Erosion]
Trees are a simple solution to the issues that erosion poses. Erosion sweeps away top soil sediment and organic nutrients that are vital to the process of farming. There comes an inflection point where a piece of land will then become eroded to where farming cannot take place. Even with the inorganic additives such as fertilizers. In this sense, trees are a vital piece of the puzzle to keeping food in the grocery stores and on our plates. Finally, they are important to protecting our infrastructure naturally. As shown below, trees can hold back landslides and mudslides from occurring in many instances. Landslides take many lives and structures with them each year globally, and with the help of trees, the inhabitable landscape can remain intact [Trees Help Prevent Landslides].
Homes for living organisms: Who can forget, trees are homes for more than just humans! furry, hard-shelled, and scaled creatures use trees all over the world for shelter. From pandas, beetles, raccoons and owls, organisms treat trees as a hub for living and providing them with food and food storage capabilities [Trees are a Hub]. Trees don’t even have to be alive or standing to harbor life. Logs, root systems and stumps are a great source of organism superhighways. This is the case all over the world, and thanks to the existence of trees, many species across all kingdoms of life are able to live and thrive because of them.
Producers of Economic Opportunities Worldwide: The last and most obvious super power of trees is what we can relate to the most, and that is the products we receive from them. Trees provide us with MANY household products such as toilet paper, packaging, bottle toppers for drinks (cork), natural plastics (cellulite), and of course… our homes (infrastructure) [Products You Didn't Know That Came From Trees]. The applications are so vast that it would be a task to state them all in one paragraph of this blog, but it is very important to appreciate ALL that they do for us. Whether that is the beam that supports your roof above your head, or the piece of tree you wipe with in the bathroom. Each product should be treated with respect. When trees are not giving us oxygen, keeping us cool, preventing landslides, and giving organisms homes.. they are serving us in more ways than imagined at one sitting. So before you wipe, before you toss the cork into the trash, throw the amazon box away, just give a little thanks to the tree that gave you that product. Because without them, life would be a lot tougher [How to Recycle Wood | How to Recycle Paper & Cardboard].
Truth of Deforestation
Where is deforestation taking place? Where do I even begin [Deforestation Definition]. Deforestation stares us in the face wherever a forest lies that isn’t properly managed. Deforestation can occur in first world and third world countries, while truthfully depending on a lot of factors. “Deforestation has greatly altered landscapes around the world. About 2,000 years ago, 80 percent of Western Europe was forested; today the figure is 34 percent. In North America, about half of the forests in the eastern part of the continent were cut down from the 1600s to the 1870s for timber and agriculture. China has lost great expanses of its forests over the past 4,000 years and now just over 20 percent of it is forested. Much of Earth’s farmland was once forests.” [Deforestation Locations].
In the past, the focus was on the large forests of the northern hemisphere, but recently, that has shifted to the tropical regions of the world. Everyone hears of deforestation in the Amazon Rain Forest, but what about all the other rain forests that coat the equatorial region of Earth? East Africa, Congo Basin, New Guinea, East Australia and many other places are losing forest area by the literal boat load. The World Wildlife Foundation posted a study that suggests large segments of these forests, and many others around, may not be here in 15 years if we don’t do more to save them. This study and article was posted back in 2015, and after approximately 6 years.. nothing has really changed.
To gauge global forest change with respect to time, check out this link that provides interactive world maps with respect to deforestation [Global Forest Watch].
How much deforestation is happening? Ah yes, the million dollar question.. and while it is hard to conceptualize how much is actually happening, all the research that I conducted didn’t suggest a single number that was truly pretty. A lot of deforestation happens illegally which is truly tough to track, but satellite data from many trusted organizations such as NASA allows experts to gauge an estimated and daunting amount. Brazil led the world in terms of total deforested area between 1990 and 2005. The country lost 42,330,000 hectares (163,436 square miles) of forest, roughly the size of California. Rounding out the top five tropical countries with the greatest total area of deforestation were Indonesia, Sudan, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo [NASA Earth Observatory]. For the grand view of how much deforestation has happened, the Global Forest Watch estimated through precise tracking data that In 2010, the world had 3.92Gha of tree cover, extending over 30% of its land area. In 2020 alone(a year of pandemic shutdown), the world still saw a net loss of 25.8Mha (0.7% forest loss) of tree cover. Think of that for a quick second! That is a pandemic year, so imagine what happened in the years where COVID-19 had no effect [Deforestation Rate Summary].
Why is Deforestation a thing? Well… if the rate of deforestation was the million dollar question, “Why” is the billion, if not, trillion dollar question. The commercial sectors that dictate deforestation stretch further than the normal eye would see. You probably thought heading into this section that it is mainly because of building materials right? WRONG! Believe it or not, that is a small piece of the pie. Check out the collage of images below that map out contributions to deforestation. Farming world wide is largest means of deforestation [Agriculture and Deforestation]. Agriculture has the largest footprint across all land mass of Earth, and you ask how could this be? Well, because we have a growing population along with a growing number of third to first world countries. When countries begin to develop, and their citizens obtain a source of wealth, they tend to shift their diets. Third world country diets focus on indigenous fruits and vegetables with grains as a staple. Once a transition of wealth takes place, people start to eat less grains, fruits and vegetables and trade in for more meat. Here’s the honest truth… meat production is detrimental to forests, because they require a lot of space. You may think of grazing space, but also consider the feed that livestock need. With increased demand for meat across the world, more land will be needed to produce, which is exactly the trends that we are seeing [Beef Industry & Deforestation | Global Meat Consumption & Deforestation | Meat & Animal Feed].
Logging for building materials and other household products are a prevalent issue with no means of circular economics and programs for reducing, repurposing, reusing and upcycling in the foreseeable future. Logging of forests provide third-party issues that result in more deforestation. So hear me out, you are considering logging an ancient forest with logging equipment and products that cannot be hauled by anything other than machines with little to no access. So what do you do? Build roads! Roads into logging areas require clearcutting for pull-offs, banks, and means of having enough space for at least two lanes of travel [Logging Roads: NASA Earth Observatory].
All of deforestation can be linked to demand in one way or another, and NO population control isn’t the answer by any means! It is all in how we consume and what we consume! Consuming extends into land usage for our homes, energy that we need to sustain our daily activities, and minerals that we use in many applications. Minerals are an interesting one that you probably didn’t consider. Minerals are a chemical compound in a naturally occurring form. Mineral extraction can be anywhere from Lithium mining for batteries in our cars, remotes, and other appliances to iron ore mining that contributes to steel manufacturing across the globe [Mining and Deforestation].
To find out more about deforestation causes head to:
Deforestation & Climate Change
Urban Sprawl & Deforestation Case Study
Effects of deforestation: Deforestation has a scale and magnitude that reaches so many sectors. It deals with the climate, the health of all organisms (including us), global land erosion, extinctions of land and sea organisms, vegetation loss, biodiversity issues, virus spread, droughts, wildfires, temperature increase and much much more. But instead of talking through it all, I have provided you with the following videos and sources to see it from another prospective than mine:
Videos:
Rainforest Deforestation & Its Effects
Articles:
Pachamama Alliance: Deforestation Effects
Forest Fires and Deforestation in the Central Amazon
Images:
What Can We Do?
Let’s focus on something a little more enlightening shall we? So what can we do? I put together a list of things you can do to help the cause. This isn’t to demand you do something or all things on this list, but more so empowering you. You can have an impact! Everyone can make a difference! For instance I; plant trees when provided the opportunity, educate others on the subject, advocate, and make conscious choices on the products that I consume. You can do the same and much more! So for starters:
Personally Plant Trees: if you are interested in this way of making a difference, head to the following link as a guide for planting trees on your own, Tree Planting Guide.
Get Involved with Non-Profits: There are so many non-profits out there making an impact by educating others, advocating, and taking physical action by reforesting areas! If you want to get into the weeds, I recommend reaching out to be involved in activities, or there is always the option of supporting through charity. Here are some non-profits that are on the fight of deforestation:
Fight Back Against Producers:
Choose alternatives that are based off of a product that is based off of want rather than need. Such as":
Digital Tablets for Paper [Digital Notepad Options]
Bidet Attachments for Toilet Paper [Bidet Attachment Suggestions]
Organic Cloths for Paper Towels [Suggestions for Paper Towel Swaps]
Recycle Wood & Paper Products:
Spread the Word: Probably standing as one of the most important things you can do is spreading the word. Spreading the word gets more people involved and informed. This has a wonderful trickle effect. So I am sure you are saying… well this isn’t in my control because this is a government issue… well not really. People run government, people run organizations, people run businesses, and people consume products. So the more people we inform, the more change that takes place. When we inform people, they act and vote accordingly based on their moral constructs. When they understand the facts of forestry, they consume differently and vote with more interest involved that do not reflect the same normal topics debated in politics. Just imagine a day in which we ask a governor, representative or president about what they are doing to slow deforestation in foreign and domestic affairs. It isn’t far off! It is just a matter of spreading the word!
What Happens When We Collectively Do the Above
Appreciation Portion
Thank you for making the conscious decision to become more informed on Trees! Also, thank you for your purchase or future consideration of our clothing line, Ecolite (See Below), which allowed you to consume this important message. We appreciate your continued support, so that we can inform and invoke change in our society for the benefit of humanity and future generations to come.
