Hello, humans. As (I hope) you can see from the title, this is a post about trees, and fun fact: I like trees. It would be rather hypocritical for me not to, as, I do appreciate living… it’s nice, I suppose.
Anyways, trees. Know anything about them? Well, if you don’t, prepare to.
- Trees omit phytoncides, chemicals that can calm anxiety, reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and boost pain threshold.
- Some trees, such as bristlecone pines and giant sequoias, can live 4,000 – 5,000 years.
- Each year, a mature tree can clear 48 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the air, and releasing oxygen in its place.
- Tree canopies help manage and filter rainwater, lessening flood damage and water runoff during storms.
- Trees are able to warn other trees in their vicinity of possible danger.
- By holding water on their leaves and letting it evaporate, trees can have a cooling affect on the area they are in.
- Places with trees in the natural landscape tend to experience less crime than places without.
- In Beverley Hills, California, a mature tree along the street has an estimated value of $450 million.
- In Fulton County (Atlanta), Georgia, houses in neighborhoods with mature trees sold for about $105,000 more than (assumptively) those without.
- Indoor places in proximity to roadside trees have more than 50% reduced air pollution.
Here is a poster I made with these facts.
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Now, the above facts may be cool and all, but does learning them really do any good? Well, yes: Learning about trees allows us to appreciate trees and actually care about them. For some reason us humans have an issue of reeking havoc on anything that we don’t acknowledge benefits us greatly, and that we can but ourselves under the illusion of it not being cruel. Thus, trees have quite a problem. They can be turned into useful objects like paper, houses, and furniture, and can’t move or defend themselves against tools as powerful as an axe or saw. Plus, their critical benefits can be easily overlooked by the ignorant eye. So, learning about these benefits and other facts that just generally make trees very cool is important for trees’ wellbeing, which from the facts I already gave you, is rather reflective on – um, human survival (you know?).
Now, what am I, the writer of this blog, doing to help trees? To be honest, there isn’t much. Not even a lot that I can do. As I am still a wee child, I don’t possess any expendable “adult money”, which is (unfortunately) required to do most things worth doing in the human world. And of course, I have parents, very good parents, but they are also very busy parents (earnin’ that mulah), so making changes that might require a bit more effort, like being more particular in buying groceries with as little emissions behind them as possible, or scouring the web/school supply store for recycled lined paper, are not easy for me to get them to help me bring about. However, there are still some things I can do that help. Like, raising awareness about trees and their coolness (heh, literally), example being this blog post, and going vegetarian, because I don’t think the industrial food system, especially in processing meat, is unethical and very much contributing to climate change. It’s a collective starting of these little things, plus drastic action from governments, that can drag us and the Earth we love out of fast-approaching climate issues.
But, how can you encourage others to do this? Well, simply, spread awareness. There’s nothing more effective with humans than forcing them into the uncomfortable mental state of “Am I a bad person?”. Tell them about how trees benefit, well, everything, and how they may be a bit more intelligent/lively that they might be.
And this leads me to my last point. Who is responsible for conserving forests? (Not even short and simply) Everyone. Everyone! If humans are going to manage to get out of the great mess we’ve created, we’re all going to have to work together.
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Lastly, my paraphrased version of the story of Smokey the Bear (who is a symbol for the prevention of forest fires, by the way).
Once upon a time, there was a little bear cub, now called Smokey. He lived in Licoln National Forest (in New Mexico), however this summer, the forest was patricularly hot and dry. Then, one day, someone who was camping in the forest carelessly left a lighted match or a still-burning cigarette, and a great forest fire became ablaze. Firefighters came and tried to clear flamable material around the fire to contain it, but the winds blew sparks right over. The fire got bigger and bigger, causing animals to flee from their homes in a panick, some to never return. Some firefighters had a close call, when they were caught against a rock wall and fire, however when the flames died down, they saw a small slightly-burnt bear cub clinging to a tree for dear life. The firefighters rescued the bear cub, and all made it out alive. The bear cub (Smokey) was taken to veternarian, and his burns were treated. Once recovered, his caretakers gave him his name: Smokey. From there he grew to fame, as Smokey the Bear, icon of forest fire prevention.