More often than ever, as a nation, we are witnessing forests and woodlands being torn down. The most common reason for tearing down all of these trees is to start up a new construction cites. Although there are a surplus of different reasons that these trees and animals habitats are being torn down, it eventually all comes down to greed. Most of the buildings that are being constructed are money-making entities. Consider some of the following examples; apartment buildings, storage facilities, casinos, etc. In fact, the amount of trees that are being planted opposed to torn down is an incredibly interesting ratio.
Annually, 15 billion trees are cut down. On the other hand, only 1.9 billion trees are planted a year. That means that the ratio of trees that are cut down to planted is 15 to 1.9. Meaning, for every 1.9 trees that are planted, 15 trees are torn down. To help better understand this idea, “For the 15 billion trees that are chopped down each year, every person on the planet could have 3,000 rolls of toilet paper” (Kilgore, 2022). According to Jonah Bader, “President Joe Biden has announced an ambitious goal of net-zero emissions by 2050… The idea of “net-zero emissions” is that any remaining emissions can be fully offset by so-called “negative emissions” — methods of sucking carbon out of the atmosphere. Planting trees is the most straightforward way to do that. Trees absorb CO2 for photosynthesis and store it as cellulose and lignin, the main components of wood” (Bader, 2021). Furthermore, “Planting trees may also be the most popular climate policy. Even former President Donald Trump loved the idea. He championed an international initiative to plant 1 trillion trees, which would be enough to soak up at least a decade of global emissions” (Bader, 2021). The possibilities are endless when it comes to further studying the ways that construction cites interfere with sustainability.
Works Cited:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/10/opinions/climate-plant-and-cut-trees-down-bader/index.html
https://8billiontrees.com/trees/how-many-trees-cut-down-each-year/
I am also on board with the idea of replenishing renewable resources like trees, and the ratio of trees cut down to trees replanted at the same time is an astonishing stat. A question I have based on your findings and what I know from the media’s doomsday presentation of climate change is: how feasible is this idea of replanting trees and do you think it’s possible to reach net-zero by 2050? It seems as if the rate at which we cut down trees might offset the goals of tree replanting since according to some, older trees have the capacity to hold more carbon than a bunch of younger trees would.
Thinking about your statistic “…for every 1.9 trees that are planted, 15 trees are torn down.”, if we keep at this rate, how long will it take until we deplete all the trees left on the planet and the amount we plant doesn’t make up for the amount lost? Scary to think about, but with statistics like this it’s hard not to think about it!
I liked how you mentioned how much planting trees affects our damage to the environment. We would think that because of how much carbon trees absorb that there would be a bigger push for an increase in trees being planted. It is inexcusable for us as a nation to not be trying to clean up our act in some of the easiest ways possible.
The fact that 15 billion trees are cut down a year when only 1.9 billion are planted a year is astonishing. Also think of how much pollution these construction sights are putting into the air. Although this may be a silly concept, but think of the book The Lorax where all of the trees are cut down. Is that really a world we want to live in, except I’m sure the children’s book left out some even more devastating details of what would happen if all of the trees in the nation were cut down.