A Future Without Trees?
Posted on June 25th, 2009 - 10:30 AMRecently, I was listening to a radio show in which commentators were talking about the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing. I remember that evening very well. I watched the images of that historic milestone with my great grandmother in Puerto Rico. She was 84 then and we discussed how the world had changed during her lifetime. She described seeing the arrival of the first cars to the Island. She contrasted those developments with the news-breaking story of that evening on July 20, 1969, when the first man landed on the moon. Looking back to these 40 years, we’ve witnessed great technological advances and innovations we now take for granted. Travel in space, communications, and nanotechnology are just some of the things that have changed in the past forty years. And that brings me to the subject today.
I’ve always been attracted to the concept of the future. In the sixties, I remember going to the World Fair in New York and watching several exhibits which forecasted how life was going to be in the 21st century. In fact, one of my favorite cartoons, The Jetsons, was an animated science fiction sitcom which portrayed life in the 25th century as conceived by the producers back in 1963. There were robots, electronic contraptions, and flying cars. If you come to think about it, other than the flying cars, some of their futuristic ideas have become a reality. However, in remembering this series, I noticed something recently which made me pause and think. There was hardly any vegetation in that “future.” There were hardly any trees. No greenery. Is that how life will become in the 25th century?
When you come to think about it, a future without trees or vegetation would not only be scary, but deadly for all mankind. Many animals, including human beings, would not survive without any vegetation on Earth. Plants are necessary for multiple reasons—they provide us with oxygen and they are at the foundation of all food chains. Furthermore, they play a fundamental role in ecology—they cleanse the atmosphere of excessively large quantities of carbon dioxide emissions. So, when we think of sustainable development and environmental protection, these are not the fads of the moment. They are essential to our survival. We can all start working to protect our planet by pledging to take action in favor of our planet on Earth Day and every day.
About the author: Lina Younes has been working for EPA since 2002 and chairs EPA’s Multilingual Communications Task Force. Prior to joining EPA, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and she has worked for several government agencies.
Tags: earth day, emissions, lunar landing, sustainable development
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Question of the Week
June 25th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
When planet Earth was in balance there was plenty of oxygen from the five heavily forested continents and pristine oceans. Now the relentlessly growing population is hewing down trees to make room for industry and agriculture and dumping tons of garbage into the global ocean without thinking of the consequence — ecocide and a toxic, lifeless planet. How much time does humanity have to change — one year, two, three, four, five……?
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June 25th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
A world without trees. To me, this is a nightmare world. I love the forest better than any other place. And the local trees, delicate mimosas, mighty oaks and cypresses, generous pecans and fruit trees. Shade trees. Trees hundreds of years old that were on this continent before we were. We cut them down just to satisfy our insatiable needs for paper products and building materrials. When there was no other way, this was acceptable. Now there are other ways. Recycling plastic and paper products, reusing still-usable wood from existing structures. It seems so easy and the rewards are endless. Without trees we can’t breathe properly because they make the oxygen we need to breathe. Trees provide us with shade and delicious fruits and nuts. Above all, trees are simply beautiful. In the sun, every leaf seems to generate its own inner green light. If you love trees as I do, find a way to help preserve them for the future.
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June 26th, 2009 at 10:49 am
I agree. What puzzles me is that in popular culture when we talk about the future or we “portray” the future it seems totally devoid of or disconnected from nature. That’s worrisome. Let’s put technology to good use to protect our trees and the environment. We have to strike the right balance.
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June 27th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Instinctively and subconsciously people fear and distrust nature because it’s so dangerous as the animals must kill and devour to survive, even though that’s what humans do too, but organized out of sight. We built villages, towns and cities to protect ourselves from the forest and jungle, yet our population keeps growing so we need to exploit more of it every year, always more, never less. So it requires education to realize it’s a limited resource we can’t live without. All existence is the process of paradox.
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June 27th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
i live in village, and now not much tree here.
i dont think if next we can live without tree
thanks,
adhon
hosting murah
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July 14th, 2009 at 7:09 am
Hi !
” I just can’t imagine future without TREES.”
Trees are like the lungs of the environment. They take much of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen via photosynthesis. The greenhouse gas load is reduced and effects of global warming are also brought down. Further dead trees that get buried in soil eventually provide fossil fuels like coal, gasoline products, etc. One more important point is that trees have an indisputable role in bringing rain to earth and they provide a cover over the top surface of earth preventing excessive heating up by solar rays.
Tree has also become a blessing to most of the engineering and a complex chemical factory. It is able to take water and salts out of the earth and lift them up to the leaves. By means of photosynthesis the leaves combine the water and salts with carbon dioxide from the air to produce the nutrients which feed the tree. In this process, as well as wood, trees create many chemicals, seeds and fruit of great utility to man.
With Regards
Amrita
[Reply]
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:02 am
Thanks, Amrita
Trees are essential.
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