Trees can play an important role in improving the environment. Ford Seeman of Forest Founders explains how.
Certainly, the burning of trees can be bad, but one can’t treat that as a universal truth.Trees can cycle subsoil nutrients up into the topsoil. If you plant trees on marginal land, grow them, harvest them, and then replant them — you can actually improve the soil quality of that marginal land over time. So I flatly reject the blanket characterization that cutting down trees — even if they are going to be used to produce power — is always bad.
Ford: Trees are the workhorse that help sequester carbon, but they aren’t the only one. Every organism that depends on photosynthesis to survive and create the building blocks they need for life are an integral part of this carbon sequestration web. There are two ways to look at carbon sequestering functionality. Trees are a part of the habitat that is created through this process. The other side is fuel for complex food chains.
New growth forests will sequester carbon faster than old growth forests, but many new growth forests are created for industrial purposes. Even though these trees are destined to be a part of our economic system and cut down, as long as they aren’t turned into firewood or stove pellets, we still see a beneficial effect in their commoditization. Wood turned into pulp for paper for example still retains carbon.
As an environment hits a tipping point and can longer help regulate its own climate, conditions become harsher. This creates a negative feedback loop, which in turn creates a more hostile environment. Over many years some species adapt to the harsher conditions, we might see new species evolve or older fringe species get a larger foothold. This is how entire environments change over time.
We are in the midst of a technological revolution that has been exponentially increasing for the last century. The majority of it has been fueled through carbon-based energy sources. In order to cut back on our carbon pollution, we need to embrace renewable energy, wind, solar, geothermal and nuclear energy sources.
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