by Ronald Reddout

Created on: March 31, 2009

Forests And The Cycle of Life

Going to school when I was younger, I was taught that the green plants, which also included the forests, helped put oxygen (a waste product to the plants) back into the atmosphere that we as human beings and animals breathe. We, in turn, disposed of our own as well as animal waste, thus providing food to these plants and trees. Of course, the sun shining down on the planet also provided Vitamin D to us humans and aided in the production of chlorophyll in the plants, which again includes the forests. I cannot imagine that this basic concept has been forgotten with our emergence into the 21st Century.

Since the forests cover (or used to cover) the greatest amount of area on our planet, they would be the most likely source for a major amount of the oxygen that is returned into the atmosphere through the action of the chlorophyll within their leaves. Therefore, it is completely ludicrous for anyone to say that cutting down a forest, or any part of a forest, to expand the human population does no harm. Harm IS done! Even if people think that everything will be okay, that no harm is being done to our atmosphere as a result of the cutting down of forested areas, enough of these deforested areas occurring throughout the world Will cause harm!

Even if reforestation is done soon after that part of the forest has been cut down, it would still take years for the young trees just planted to become large enough to give out the same amount of oxygen as those trees that were taken away. Factor in the possibility that more trees are being cut down than are being replaced through the reforestation process and the amount of oxygen being returned to the atmosphere will be steadily decreasing over time. These actions could be creating a harmful situation worldwide!

Other factors in the decline of forests are disease and insect infestation. These two factors are becoming increasingly prevalent in certain forested areas. Again, the loss of forests through the mindless and hostile actions of either disease or insects reduces the output of oxygen into our atmosphere. Reforestation in either case may not have the desired result unless a way can be found to either halt the disease or eliminate the insect that is attacking otherwise healthy trees.

The above is not intended to be construed in any way as a scientific approach to the solution of this problem, but rather as a call to alarm that must be heeded if we do not want to deplete the precious oxygen in our atmosphere. For I am sure that, when the oxygen decreases below a certain level, life on this planet, both plant and animal, will most certainly suffer.

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