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10 reasons why trees are fantastic
From the delicate willow tree to the mighty oak, from the upright pine to the serpentine mangrove, trees are increasingly overlooked in a world that spends too much time looking down and not enough looking up.
Don’t you believe us? Well, in no particular order, here are just ten of many reasons why we think trees are amazing:
1. Trees regulate the water cycle
The water cycle is the process by which water falls as rain on the ground, is absorbed by trees and other plants and is released back into the air as transpiration. A single tree typically releases about 250-400 gallons of water back into the air each day.
Trees are therefore crucial for maintaining optimal humidity levels in our air and for keeping the water cycle (which provides us with vital fresh water) in balance.
The world has established a natural rhythm in the water cycle. Deforestation severely disrupts this cycle and can jeopardize our supplies of fresh water (which makes up only 3% of the planet’s total water).
2. Trees create jobs
From rainforest maintenance and tree planting to fruit harvesting and from biological to botanical research: Trees offer a variety of jobs. Rural work is an occupation as old as time itself, but as with many other physically demanding jobs, it is usually work reserved for people in lower socio-economic areas. For many small, often rural communities, there would be no way to feed the local population without trees.
While it could be argued that deforestation also creates jobs, this work is not sustainable in the long term because when the trees are gone, the work ends. Forest conservation and reforestation account for the majority of arboreal jobs in the world, and we need to protect these roles for people whose livelihoods depend on them. Or even better, let’s create even more of these jobs.
3. Trees are a vital habitat for wildlife
A diverse range of birds, insects and mammals live in forest habitats. Creatures that have adapted to their environment over centuries and depend on it to maintain a certain degree of constancy.
While the larger or more exciting animals such as elephants, tigers, gibbons, macaques, sunbirds or hornbills may be the first to spring to mind, a seemingly simple tree can also be home to hundreds or even thousands of smaller creatures. Snakes, frogs, millipedes, ants, termites, spiders, beetles, moths – all depend on the safety of their forest home.
It has been estimated that the continuation of deforestation at its current rate will lead to the extinction of around 28,000 different species over the next 25 years. Many of them would disappear without ever being discovered.
4. Trees improve soil quality
Trees improve the quality of the soil around them in many ways. As part of their carbon filtering properties, they remove carbon and other harmful substances from the soil, allowing other plants to thrive. Good soil should not contain more than 2% carbon, but in densely forested areas it can be as low as 0.05%. In fact, land surrounded by trees can produce a crop that is more than twice as high, thanks to the soil-purifying effect of trees. The higher the yield, the less land is needed to feed humanity.
Trees also contribute vital minerals to the soil by shedding their leaves and allowing mulch to decompose.
Finally, trees improve soil quality by drawing nutrients from deep in the soil to the surface through the powerful action of their roots. This also makes the soil much more nutritious for other plants (including crops).
In short, if we want good soil for agriculture and biodiversity, we need to take care of our planet’s trees.
5. Trees prevent soil erosion
Areas that have been deforested are much more susceptible to desertification. With their trunks and leaves, trees form a natural barrier against winds and floods. This barrier slows down the forces of nature and helps prevent bad weather from becoming a natural disaster that can devastate the area.
Tree roots fulfill an important function by holding the soil in which they are embedded together and preventing erosion. In deforested areas, there is nothing to hold the soil in place or slow the speed of incoming winds or monsoon rains. A period of high winds or rain is then free to sweep away all the loose soil and turn the area into a kind of desert.
6. Trees as a source of food
When grown sustainably, trees are a source of many essential foods. It is common knowledge that the world’s population would have more than enough to eat if everyone followed a vegan diet.
We can get plenty of nutrients from trees alone; from nuts to fruits to syrup made from flowers and resins, and the spices made from aromatic bark (cinnamon is one example), trees are an amazing source of food for humans.
And hey – the firewood they provide allows us to prepare food that we would otherwise not be able to digest.
7. Trees combat noise pollution
In addition to air pollution, trees also have a role to play in combating the negative effects of noise pollution. A major effect of urbanization, transportation and industrialization, noise is not only annoying for humans – it can have a devastating effect on wildlife.
Not only can noise pollution from humans disrupt the sonar and navigation systems of animals, it can also disrupt entire ecosystems. For example, some breeding bird species will not breed in habitats that are undesirable due to noise.
The foliage of the trees has a dampening effect that reduces the sound level and allows the wildlife to be shielded from the noise pollution that we as humans cause.
8. and trees also combat light pollution
In addition to noise reduction, the foliage of the trees also provides a barrier against unwanted light pollution.
Like noise pollution, city lights, in addition to being a nuisance, can disrupt the habits of animals like birds and moths (as well as nocturnal mammals like badgers) that rely on daily light and dark cycles to regulate their internal clocks, navigate and find food.
9. Trees combat climate change
One of the factors influencing global warming and climate change is the carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a “greenhouse gas”, known for its heat-trapping properties. On a rapidly warming planet, the excess carbon dioxide that humans produce will literally trap the heat in our atmosphere.
When a tree grows, it absorbs carbon dioxide from the air through a process called photosynthesis, stores the carbon as wood and releases oxygen molecules. For this reason, forests act as a giant filter, removing greenhouse gas from the air and only releasing it back into the air when they are burned or decay back into the earth.
This is why the impact of deforestation is twofold, as not only are nature’s CO2 filters removed, but they are then often burned and any carbon they store is released back into the atmosphere.
Once fully grown, a tree removes less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere because it no longer produces as much new wood, so the extra carbon is no longer needed. With responsible forest management, older trees can be carefully harvested to absorb the maximum amount of carbon from the air – creating a ‘carbon store’.
Trees are absolutely crucial in the fight against climate change. Without the world’s forests, we wouldn’t stand a chance.
10. Trees produce oxygen
There is truth in the statement that the Amazon rainforest is the green lung of our planet. While we’ve covered the way trees remove CO2 from the air, an added bonus of this process is that they produce oxygen as a by-product. So trees not only remove unhealthy air, they actually replace it with clean air.
Considering that around two thirds of the human body is made up of oxygen, that’s pretty good news for us! Without oxygen, the human species would be finished, and since photosynthesis is the biggest producer of oxygen, we should probably make sure we take good care of our trees!
Tree planting project in collaboration with the Click-A-Tree organization:
Learn English and plant trees with SPEAKINGO English language course!
Would you like to learn English and plant a few trees at the same time to help the climate and the elephants for whom we plant these trees? Sign up for the SPEAKINGO online English course! Together we can change the world for the better!
Learning English in a SPEAKINGO course is easy and fun. You speak in full sentences in English and SPEAKINGO praises or corrects you. This way, all the grammar you need and the most important English words will come to mind – and trees are planted for elephants in Thailand!
