Assignment#2 What Would Happen If All The Trees in The World Die?
Assignment#2 What Would Happen If All The Trees in The World Die?
Assignment#2 What Would Happen If All The Trees in The World Die?
Importance Of Trees:
Trees are the largest and longest living organisms on earth. To grow tall the tree has become
a miracle of engineering and a complex chemical factory. It is able to take water and salts out
of the earth and lift them up to the leaves, sometimes over 400 ft. above. By means of
photosynthesis the leaves combine the water and salts with carbon dioxide from the air to
produce the nutrients which feed the tree. In this process, as well as wood, trees create many
chemicals, seeds and fruit of great utility to man. Trees also remove carbon dioxide, the main
greenhouse gas, from the air.
Trees are of continued importance to the environment. Tropical rain forests have of particular
significance; although they now occupy less than 6 per cent of the land surface of the earth
they probable sustain more than half of the biological species on the planet.
Notwithstanding the debt we owe to trees, their emotive power, and their importance to other
forms of life, the forested area of the earth is steadily being depleted. This is leading to the
degradation of the environment and the extinction of many species. There is now a real
danger that in the not very distant future man will destroy a large proportion of the present
population of species on earth, create an uninhabitable environment, and then die out himself.
If this happens it will not be the first time that a large proportion of the species on the earth
have been extinguished.
If They Die, Global Warming would
happen:
Oxygen Depletion:
The amount of oxygen dissolved in the oceans may decline, with adverse consequences for
ocean life.
Health:
Human beings will be exposed to climate change through changing weather patterns
(temperature, precipitation, sea-level rise and more frequent extreme events) and indirectly
through changes in water, air and food quality and changes in ecosystems, agriculture,
industry and settlements and the economy. Health status of millions of people would be
affected through, for example, increases in malnutrition; increased deaths, diseases and injury
due to extreme weather events; increased burden of diarrhoeal diseases; increased frequency
of cardio-respiratory diseases due to high concentrations of ground-level ozone in urban areas
related to climate change; and altered spatial distribution of some infectious diseases. Climate
change would bring some benefits in temperate areas, such as fewer deaths from cold
exposure, and some mixed effects such as changes in range and transmission potential of
malaria in Africa. Overall, it is expected that benefits would be outweighed by negative
health effects of rising temperatures, especially in developing countries. Air pollution too
would increase rapidly, as trees are ‘pollution controllers’ and without them, it would be
uncontrollable. This would further result in rise in number of deaths by air pollution.
Unemployment:
Millions of people’s employment is directly or indirectly linked to trees. If all of trees would
perish, all of them would get unemployed. Timber industries would collapse and business of
fruits, vegetables or other items related to trees would vanish.