2-22-2012-we need more trees

       global warming should be here even if it isn't. we have been cutting trees in mass quantities since the industrial revolution started and trees were the main source of heat for thousands of years before that back to the dawn of civilization. first thing that man did was gather wood and take back to the cave or hut because his woman was cold. or he made her go get the wood. not quite sure how it happened but it happened . so we have bee using this resource for years. all the time the trees have been replenishing themselves and have been used as windbreaks to fight erosion , to build our homes , and still to heat our homes today. we need trees lots of them . 

        they remove carbon dioxide and lock it up in the woody matter of trees, better than anything we could devise . they also are scrubbers of our air removing pollutants and locking them away and releasing oxygen we need ot sustain our self. they condition our enviroment by their combined presence as a whole to reduce the buildup of carbon dioxide in our earths atmosphere. we cant live with out them , and a plentitude of plants and animals all depend on trees for their existence here on earth. and what would a summer outside be without a tree or two to park yourself under as the sun creeps high in the sky. 

         and you would think that i am hypocritical to be a wood carver and express a love for trees. but you would be so wrong as to say that. as i only use trees that were already down or someone had removed the wood through foresting. to me this allows for cull trees to be replaced by stronger trees. but none the less i refuse to carve a tree someone specifically cuts down for the purpose of carving.  don't include me in that game. also they have kits that you can attach to an alive tree that looks like a face. those are bad also. as they usually involve screwing something into a tree shortening its life. 

       foresting is ok to a point . but it seems like the turnaround on our forests is now creeping closer to 20 years between cuttings. and in reality may be even less. resulting in smaller trees harvested overall. as far as virgin timber in Ohio . i believe it is extinct except in parks and close to urban areas, where they might be more protected.  smaller trees reduces the potential for curbing the greenhouse gas problem we have from using fossil fuels. even if we were to plant 2 trees per person on earth for next 20 years we would only begin to keep an even pace with the destruction being ravaged on our forests. that would be 280 trillion trees we would need  by 2032 in order to maintain our present status quo. we are only recycling maybe 50 percent of our trees now. some goes to heat generation , other goes to mulch products, or reuse as lumber products etc.. assuming a population of an existing 7 trillion people who share this earth with you. we would be lucky to have even half of those trees survive the 20 years as things go now. and first you have to plant them. trees are the perfect solar collector. requiring no technology yet able to store mass amounts of solar energy and lock up undesirable carbon dioxide . 

      we continually cut down and excavate wide swaths of land to build new housing developments and industrial parks and replant only a hundredth of the trees that originally occupied that area. how long can we keep doing this before our children start gasping from the intense effects of the greenhouse effect. we are a profit driven society that needs an awakening . are we going to see it in dramatic weather swings. are we prepared to face drought situations , and continually hide our head in the sand to decry the effects of global warming when we know through common sense we as humans have the responsibility to make right what we have wronged and reverse the effects of global warming.

      it doesn't have to be a costly transition to overcome these effects if implemented gradually. some common sense approaches to the way we do things would make a considerable improvement. first priority should be to increase our reuse of recyclable lumber and look for alternatives to using traditional stick built  homes. steel studding has come a long way in residential use. look for long term homes designed to last a hundred years instead of twenty. second is a personal thing we could each do as a group as we all use paper products for personal hygiene, etc. use recycled when ever possible or plant a tree or two to make up the difference.  third is to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels as they are a major contributor to green house gases. also  we need legislators who are willing to put the environment over profit to provide the stimuli to encourage more green conservation of our resources. use our tax dollars to allow humans to live harmoniously with nature and not against nature.

      i look at the cities sometime and really fail to understand why there blight has become so. you look at the lifeless pieces of real estate left in profits recess, and i see potential. to me these areas should be highest priority as to developing. at one time all the utilities were there as once they were prosperous foundries etc.. but instead of abandoning these properties we should be developing these for our industrial use again. why build new factories and destroy woods or cornfields. why extend utilities to distant areas where we have never had that need for that before. yes it makes jobs but it wastes critical rsources that we will one day need for humans to exist. 

       i just think we need to rethink our selves and find a way for society to advance and allow individual effort to be rewarded. most people tell me i m an idealist. well that is one name i have been called that i only hope i can live up to. ideas has brought us this far and we will have to have a lot more ideas to get us anywhere in the future. this is a tree in front of a cabin at atwood lake that is probably gone by now , but is a testament to its ability to put up with all the people who signed it . click on the pics to enlarge. look at all these peoples ' names and wonder how many trees they have used since they wrote their name here. in spite of the graffiti it was a healthy beech tree popular for writing on. its fate is unknown.