Save the Forests

Get thee to a Forest, for rest, for est.

I'm trying to be clever. But seriously, nothing refreshes (my) being better than a walk through a forest. I like to commune with nature. If you've never done so, I recommend it. An absolute must. 'Est' is being in french, I think. It's good for your soul. Birds and ferns and light coming through the canopy, and such. Good exercise to go hiking, to boot (pun intended).

Anyway, once you have a spiritual connection with our forested ancient human past, and are at one with the universe, you may decide you want to bequeath to your children a similar experience, and -to be more cerebral- you may want to preserve trees as producers of oxygen for us to breath (they take in carbon dioxide, the opposite of us). Plants and humans are in a symbiotic relationship. We need them for our air, our weather, and our spiritual wellbeing.

Forests are ecosystems, and rain forests, for example, contain a huge diversity of life. We should respect all life. After all, humans are only animals, like any other. In an infinite universe, we're basically bugs, too. Anyway, I personally believe a New Yorker and a resident of the Amazonian rain forest are equals. Both should be respected and happy.

New Yorkers are just a bunch of ants in a hive-mind, like a colony in the forest. Yes, nature is predatory. You gotta do what you gotta do. Extinctions happen. Have a heart.

Forests, which cover a third (well, around 30%) of the earth's landmass, give us wood, in the form of lumber or firewood, medicines, they store genetic variation (useful for crop resistance, for example), they stabilize soils, and they maintain an immense store of biodiversity, both plant and animal. They mitigate climate change, as carbon sinks, and are a source of fresh water: Two-thirds of people worldwide depend for all or some of their water on supplies from forests. And more than 1 billion people living in extreme poverty around the world depend on forests for their livelihoods.

Deforestation is a serious problem. An estimated 140,000 (upper estimation) species are going extinct every year. This is an irreversible loss, despite what the movie Jurassic Park may have told you. 1/3 of anthropogenic (human-caused) carbon emissions (a greenhouse gas) have resulted from deforestation (trees absorb carbon dioxide, while burning releases it). Global warming's consequences include: rising sea levels (worse case:44 feet!) and the consequent displacements of populations, less fresh water and more conflict for it, and hotter (and cooler) temperatures, with conseqent weather effects like hurricanes. Anyway, 13 million hectares, average, of forest were cut down each year from '90-'05. A hectare is 2.4710439 U.S. survey acres (I like specificity, I'm a nerd), or 10,000 square kilometers or 107,639 square feet. Of course, trees are planted and forests grow. So the net deforestation is a smaller amount than the 13m hectares/yr. From '90-'00, the net loss was 8.9m hectares/yr., and from '01-'05 the net loss was 7.3m hectares/yr. Here's a fun to calculate (and yet sad) fact: from '90 to '05, x square feet of forest, net, disappeared. x= 14,466,681,600,000. Over 14 trillion square feet.

A bit of forest history: About half of the mature tropical forests, between 750 to 800 million hectares of the original 1.5 to 1.6 billion hectares that once covered the planet have fallen. By 2030, if current trends continue, there will only be ten percent of tropical rainforests remaining with another ten percent in a degraded condition; 80 percent will have been lost, says Wikipedia.

Here are some links to get you started on your path to saving the forests, and thus yourself, in my opinion:
1.http://www.csshome.com/forests.htm
2.http://wilderness.org/
3.http://www.conservation.org/learn/forests/Pages/overview.aspx
4.http://www.wwfus.org/consumer/pf.cfm
5.http://www.nature.org/initiatives/forests/
6.http://www.sierraclub.org/forests/
7.http://www.foei.org/en/campaigns/climate/bali/forests-declaration (friends of the earth say Mr. T: mobilize, resist, transform!)

Consider planting a live tree after Christmas, from a Christmas tree you've rented with roots and all. Good for the ozone/ghg's (greenhouse gases) situation . See this link.