Gaia

Lady Antonia
Jul 14, 2018
2 min read

This world is a magical place full of wonders that most people aren't even aware of and this lack of awareness makes them unable to understand the importance of every blade of grass and molecule of air. The Earth herself provides all that every being could ever ask for and every creature, every bug, every microbe has a purpose as well.

The trees provide oxygen that all things require to exist, they provide food and shelter, they filter the toxins from the air that we can't breathe and release clean breathable air. They provide fruits, nuts, medicine, they provide shade which prevents the sun from scorching and burning the Earth and trees also create the rain. In a process called transpiration trees pull moisture up from the ground and release it through their leaves with the morning dew which evaporates and creates rain. The rain in return replenishes the lakes, streams and fresh water that provide the drinking water that every being needs.

Each living creature breaths in the oxygen and exhales carbon dioxide which the trees absorb greedily as they convert this into food for themselves. It is a wonderful balancing act between nature and the planet, a self sustaining necessity between the planet and it's inhabitants because without oxygen and water nothing exists and without trees there is no air or rain.

Now the carbon that the trees gobble up is stored in each tree as long as that tree is alive. What this means is that when a tree is cut down the carbon that it has stored is released back into the atmosphere. Not so bad when you are talking about one or two trees but when you are talking thousands of acres a day around the world, that equals big problems for air quality because not only are those felled trees no longer absorbing the carbon dioxide and transforming it into new air but it is expelling the years upon years of carbon it had already absorbed right back into the atmosphere.

If you think about the planet like one large terrarium it will help you to understand the beauty and complexity of what nature really does to keep you alive and why it's so important to protect it. So, when you hear someone say, "save the trees", now you know why. Your very existence depends on it.