If trees become extinct overnight, then most of the life on earth will end with them. Today, as we are cutting down trees without considering the result, the lives of many creatures are in danger and on the verge of extinction.
Today, when we hear that a tiger is in our residential areas, the fact is just the opposite. Actually, we are the intruders in their areas. In fact, we have made many animals homeless by cutting so many forests. I don’t remember but I saw a TV program either on the National Geographic channel or on a British channel a while back, it said due to our greed, the disappearance of the remaining forests will mean many plants, fungi, and animals will have no place to live.
I was in this area recently, just at the foothills of Himalaya and wasn't surprised to see tigers and other animals need our protection, funny but true.
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An environmentalist says, “All kinds of species will die with extinction of trees. And this will happen not in any particular area, but on a global scale.” So, should we wait to die or save the trees?
The process of extinction of species of animals will result in the limited availability of forests for their habitat. As the result, creatures living in the forests will die, which are dependent on the trees. I read a report in a magazine whose name I don’t remember now a couple of years ago. The environmentalists found that the population of the species in the forests was 50 to 100 percent higher than in the open fields.
They had mentioned, “Every single tree standing in the field shelters many living beings. It provides them with the resources to live. Therefore, losing a tree also means depriving the earth of many living beings.”
If all the trees were removed from the earth today, there would be a massive change in its climate. Trees act as biological pumps and regulate the water cycle of the earth. They absorb water from the ground and release it into the atmosphere as steam.
By doing this, the forests act like clouds, which is why it rains. Apart from this, trees also prevent flooding in the event of heavy rains because they block water around them, so that water does not suddenly flow into rivers or lakes.
So, can you even imagine what will happen if all the trees in the world die today?
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In the event of a storm, the population of the coastal area is saved from facing severe storms directly because these trees help stop them to a great extent. The trees stop the soil from erosion. Otherwise, the soil gets washed away because of heavy rains and floods. It also saved different helpful insects and other small organisms living in the soil from destruction will also survive if we save the trees.
Without trees, the old forest areas will dry up and there will be a severe drought. Even if it rains, there will be great destruction due to floods as there will be soil erosion which will have a direct impact on the land and oceans. Coral reefs and other sea creatures will also suffer. With no trees, the small islands would not be safe from the frequent storms that hit these islands.
Another environmental scientist wrote, “If all trees are removed from the earth in a single stroke, the water from the oceans will come and cover a lot of land.” Okay, we are not removing the trees in a single stroke, but aren’t we doing it at a quick rate?
Besides controlling the water cycle, trees also act as a cooling agent by lowering temperatures locally. They provide shelter to many creatures and provide shade to the land, which keeps the temperature low.
They also regulate the temperature by absorbing the heat from the sun. Through evaporation, they convert water from the sun’s energy into steam. This natural system of reducing temperature along with trees will also end.
In such a situation, where there are forests, those areas will become hot. In another research, scientists found that if all the trees were removed from just within 25 square kilometers, the temperature at the local level would increase by two degrees Celsius. And we all know the difference between open and forested areas from our personal experiences.
Globally, trees are helpful in combating climate change. Trees absorb carbon dioxide present in the air and store it in their trunks. As a result, of deforestation, global carbon emissions have increased by 12 to 15%. Aside from that, changes in land use contribute up to 25% of carbon emissions.
Do you have any doubt about the fact that the destruction of all the trees in the world, the emission of carbon dioxide, will increase? If it ever happened, the process of climate change will be too fast.
