Environmental Journal: Entry 3
I love trees, and I do not say that out loud often enough really. I just love being around them – I’m always in awe of their grandeur and age.
I often find myself wondering what they’ve been through – what the world was like before I walked amongst them – and I often ask them. In a way, I’m glad they don’t answer me because the peace and refuge they provide is why I truly love them.
Many weekends are now spent walking (or should I say chasing my two year-old) around researched woodland in our local area. My hope is that one day he will have the same luxury of chasing his children around woodlands, wherever he chooses to lay down roots.
Everybody knows that a world without trees would be disastrous (I will save you the lecture) but the sad fact is that over the last two decades, we have been chopping them down at a worrying rate. Some of the reasons are detailed below:
- Farming and grazing of Livestock
- Mining
- Drilling for natural resources. (i.e. fossil fuels, minerals, precious metals etc.)
- Logging
- Urbanisation
All of this has huge consequences on the environment, ecology and the humans that reside where these trees are cut, but this also affects the wider world and the planet we call home.
Below is an article that is very appropriate at the moment and worth a read, the implications are far more complex than healing the planet until we run out of oxygen (although that is a pretty scary thought). https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/11/deforestation-leading-to-more-infectious-diseases-in-humans/
I know it is hard sometimes to see past the negative headlines that come at us from all angles, but if you make it past them, you will see that some amazing initiatives are going on all around us, not just globally but locally. These are initiatives that I and our business will become a part of, and something I would urge all of us to get behind. It really is just as easy as typing ‘tree planting’ into Google. You don’t need to plant thousands of trees, but I would highly recommend planting one for yourself or a loved one, I can’t think of a better legacy than that…
Cheers,
Burts
https://treesisters.org/
https://www.naturalcapitalpartners.com/
https://www.ydmt.org/
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-launches-new-scheme-to-boost-tree-planting
Google ‘tree planting’