Imagine if trees gave free wifi. We'd all be planting them like crazy

There is a famous quote that says "Imagine if trees gave free wifi. We'd all be planting them like crazy. It's a pity they only give us the oxygen we breathe"; and no matter how sad it is, I believe it to be completely true. Trees are vital for existence and our lives, but we tend to ignore that when we cause deforestation we are not just cutting trees down, we are destroying the habitats of millions of species. For example, the species population in 2010 was estimated to be between 3 million and 100 million, and 80% of these species inhabit these forests (FAO, 2020). In fact, 45% of all tree species are members of ten families (par. 12). It is relevant to highlight that trees are relied on for food, shelter, and livelihoods by over one billion people in the world, so it goes beyond just protecting animals, which is indispensable, but also protecting our own species (WWF, n.d).

 

                           (Source of the images: Crucero por Amazonas, 2016)

Trees are seen as decor elements, or as unlimited sources of paper for our daily duties, but What about the oxygen they provide to us? Is every other reason we can find for cutting trees more important than avoiding climate change or even breathing?. According to the FAO of the United Nations (2020), the ratio of deforestation, between the years 2015 and 2020 was 10 million hectares per year (par. 9). And this loss of forest diversity is attributed to agricultural expansion, mainly commercial agriculture, such as cattle (par.10). This here turns into a complicated subject because most of this agricultural expansion is supported by the argument that food consumption has increased over the years, which makes it a debate on whether leaving those forest intact for our survival and the planet's health or turning them into agricultural land to feed the people around the world (WWF, n.d).

Of course, not every cause reason for deforestation is due to food consumption, there is also a side based on economic growth, which in fact turns the coin to the side where money oversteps on reducing climate change. This may sound like a problem that is far away, both in distance and time, but it is not. The whole planet's life is being count-down by the climate clock located in several parts of the world, the main one found in New York, which counts down the time we have to achieve zero emissions or there will be no going back. The clock at the moment of this writing is currently at 6 years, 293 days (Climate Clock, 2021). Moreover, in terms of distance, our country, Colombia, has a significant part of one of the world's richest and biggest forests, the Amazon, which is said to have over 60% of the world's species. Most of the forests in the country were preserved thanks to the presence of indigenous communities that made their best efforts to protect these ecosystems (saving the Amazon, 2020). Nevertheless, the Amazonic region is the area in Colombia with the highest level of deforestation, in fact between 1990 and 2018 over 427 thousand hectares were lost to deforestation (Saving the Amazon, 2020). 

                                                                (SAT as cited by Saving the Amazon, 2020)

I have interviewed someone very close to me, my dad, who was the former Amazon's governor, several years ago. He explained to me how when he was in charge, there were higher regulations on the subject of deforestation. Talking to him, he stated that the main regulation was that wood could only be taken for self-shelter, there was no allowance for commercialization, in fact, the army was in charge of forbidding commercialization of wood through the rivers, while my dad would look out for the roads. Surprisingly, it used to work, people did follow those rules. Was it because the army and the government were involved? Or was it because years ago people were more conscious of the great climatic threat were are posing?.

I feel nowadays the Colombian government is out of it, they are just worried about the economic growth and how its development levels will look to other governments. Both governmental institutions and the governments themselves should be taking this situation with more seriousness, especially countries with high amounts of forests, like Colombia, Brazil, Sub-saharan Africa, among others. It is clear there are several problems we have to focus our attention on, but if the president can go on live television every single day to talk about vaccines, he can surely take at least 5 minutes every day to raise awareness of climate change and deforestation.

References:

FAO. (2020). The state of the world's Forest. Retrieved from: http://www.fao.org/state-of-forests/en/

WWF. (n.d). Deforestation Fronts. Retrieved from: https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/forests_practice/deforestation_fronts_/

Saving the Amazon. (2020). Informe de deforestación en Colombia para el periodo 1990 –2018 con énfasis en los territorios de Resguardos indígenas y territorios SINAP (Sistema Nacional de Áreas Protegidas). Retrieved from: https://storage.googleapis.com/saving-the-amazon-155216.appspot.com/savingtheamazon-document/Informe-de-deforestacon-1990-2018.pdf

Climate Clock. (2021). Climate clock. Retrieved from: https://climateclock.world/#:~:text=The%20Climate%20Clock%20shows%20two,C%20above%20pre%2Dindustrial%20levels.

Crucero Amazonas. (2016). Biodiversidad del Amazonas. Retrieved from: https://crucerosamazonas.com/biodiversidad.html