I'm proud to call myself a tree hugger (of the modern variety). This doesn't mean I actually go around hugging trees (although I can recall a few such instances) or wrap myself around them when they are about to be felled. What it does mean, however, is that I understand their importance to the environment and, more importantly, to us - and I believe they should be better protected.
You can read more about what I mean by "modern-day tree hugger" here.
Like former U.S. President FDR said, “Forests are the lungs of our land.”
No one could have said it better.
That's because when trees (and other plants) "breathe", they take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen for us to breathe. They do so during a process called photosynthesis. Because they absorb CO2, a major greenhouse gas, they play a huge role in regulating local, regional, and global climate. After all, it isn't just a tiny amount of carbon that they're absorbing. Despite losing over 5m hectares of jungle - roughly twice the size of Belgium - each year, tropical forests alone are still absorbing about 1/5 of fossil fuel emissions each year.
After absorbing carbon dioxide, they store, or sequester, it. Trees are what are known as carbon sinks. They lock away carbon and prevent it from re-entering the atmosphere - and they do a much better job at it than other plants due to their relatively larger size and longer life span. Some of them can store carbon away in their trunks for centuries.
Undisturbed tropical forests are the best at carbon sequestration. If you fell and burn them, massive amounts of carbon is released into the atmosphere. Cutting down or burning trees therefore reduces natural carbon storage, leading to higher concentrations in the atmosphere and a warmer climate. It is estimated that 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation and other land use changes (underground, forest soils and root structures store carbon as well).
Here are some interesting statistics on trees from the Urban Forestry Network:
- On average, one acre of new forest can sequester about 2.5 tons of carbon annually
- For every 1 ton of new-wood growth, about 1.5 tons of CO2 is removed from the air and 1 ton of oxygen is produced
- Planting 100 million trees could reduce an estimated 18 million tons of carbon per year
- If every American family planted one tree, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere would be reduced by 1 billion pounds annually
- The U.S. Forest Service estimates that all the forests in the United States combined sequestered approximately 309 million tons of carbon each year from 1952-1992, offsetting approximately 25% of human-caused carbon emissions during that period
- Over a 50-year lifespan, a tree generates almost $32,000 worth of oxygen and provides $62,000 worth of air pollution control
As The Economist pointed out in a recent article:
"If Brazil had kept on felling trees as rapidly as it was cutting them down in 2005, it would, by 2013, have put an extra 3.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That means that over those eight years it managed to save six times as much carbon as ultra-green Germany did in the same period through one of the world’s most expensive renewable-energy regimes... Rich countries spend billions on renewable energy at home, which has so far cut carbon emissions only a bit."
Something to think about... And hopefully something that will guide policy.
Brazil has made big strides in protecting the Amazon.
Other benefits we derive from trees include providing aesthetic value, increasing property values, improving water quality, reducing energy demands by providing shade, providing habitat, and maintaining biodiversity.
Trees also remove other atmospheric pollutants including sulfur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter, and toxic heavy metals such as cadmium and lead.