Hi all!
Andreas, we see you've done some work in the forest, with some lovely photos of nature
!
I'd like to ask your opinion about something please.
With the wild fires in California having been in the news (again), it got me thinking
...
Fact: Trees take polluted air, 'convert that polluted air' & provide the planet with clean air to be breathed by humans & animals. It takes 10-20 years for a tree to grow to maturity (depending on various factors).
---
Let's imagine that in the year 2000 there were 1000 trees on planet Earth, & there were 200 people living on planet Earth. So there were 4 trees for every 1 human.
By the year 2005, 100 more humans were born... so then there were 300 humans on Earth.
The extra 100 humans needed more place to build houses... so they CHOPPED DOWN 50 TREES IN THE FOREST to use the wood to build houses. Those extra humans also needed more wheat to make bread... so they BURNED DOWN ANOTHER 50 TREES IN THE FOREST to make an open space to plant a field of wheat. The humans also wanted more cattle for roast beef... so they BURNED DOWN A FURTHER 50 TREES IN THE FOREST to make open space for grazing grass to grow.
This means that in the space of 5 years, 150 TREES DISAPPEARED.
By the end of 2005, there are 850 trees on Earth, & there are 300 people living on planet Earth. So, in the space of only 5 years, there are only 2.8 trees for every 1 human.
---
The new young trees which they planted are:
a) not enough to make up for the comparison of how many trees were chopped & burned down
b) still too immature to process the same amount of polluted air as the mature trees which were chopped & burned down
In effect, in 2005 there is less clean air for humans & animals to breath.
The expanding population, expanding houses for settlement, expanding fields for wheat, expanding fields for grazing... are resulting in a BIGGER LOAD ON FEWER TREES which must continue to provide clean air for the human animals to breath.
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The situation gets acceleratingly worse, because by 2010 200 more people are on Earth, for a total of 500 people of Earth... they chop & burn down even more trees than before... not giving enough time for young trees to grow to maturity to replace the ones that were chopped & burned down.
So, every 5 years, Earth has far less clean air to breath to keep humans & animals alive.
In essence, we are suffocating ourselves, & the whole planet, by our irresponsible habits.
---
When I see, as on the news
, SO MANY TREES burning down, I wonder if we are correctly calculating what the loss of those number of trees really means.
I wonder, if in the work you or your colleagues did regarding the forests, do you have data which shows what the impact is of the accelerating loss of trees? Do government officials realize the important urgency needed to conserve trees
& change habits
? Do we realize that if trees disappear we won't have paper for the toilet & for books
?
Trees are of critical strategic importance, & carelessly throwing cigarettes out of car windows into plant areas
, leading to wild fires, is endangering everybody's existence & leads to the loss of many jobs where households depend on the forestry industry!
That hammer is very big 
