Vancouver Sun -- Five cool things the forests do for you
,March 21st, 2011
Today marks World Forests Day and this year's commemoration is especially unique because 2011 is the United Nations International Year of Forests. Sure, you've heard it all before: Forests are the 'lungs of the Earth' that give us oxygen for basic functions like breathing. But here are five reasons why people – especially British Columbians – have to give a 'high five' to the forests:
1. Forests make us feel better. Half of our medications, from digoxini for the heart, to Taxol for cancer, come from the plant kingdom. Our bodies recognize and are healed by plant remedies. There's science to this but basically, our cells speak the same language.
2. Forests create oxygen for the air we breathe. In fact, that breath you just took - a lush forest was part of making that. And it's a mutual relationship. Forests take the carbon dioxide we breathe out and convert it to the oxygen we breathe in. The Boreal, B.C.'s rainforests, and a hard-working cluster of trees near you, assist in making being alive possible.
3. Forests give us our water. When we think of water, we think of faucets, but it is more phenomenal than that. Forests create humidity, capture fog and regulate the transfer of water from the air to the soil, to streams, to our reservoirs. They prevent flooding when it pours and keep our land hydrated at times of drought. Perhaps it isn't a coincidence that World Forests Day is today and World Water Day is tomorrow.
4. Forests are home to beloved (iconic) species - including humans. Homo sapiens - you know the type: opposable thumb, walks on two feet, will perform mating dance after a few drinks. As many as 150 million people actually live inside forests and depend on them directly to fish, hunt, harvest food, collect medicine and to sustain jobs and culture.
From the endangered Orangutan of Indonesia to the Siberian Tiger of eastern Russia to the Spirit Bear of the Great Bear Rainforest: 80 per cent of land-based biodiversity call forests home. In B.C., our forests have become a veritable Noah's Ark for 17 major mammal species as their former neighbourhoods elsewhere in North America have been felled for pulp, converted to cities or razed for industrial activities.
5. Forests are your climate change accountants, keeping carbon within budget. The first forests appeared 380 million years ago - 379.9 million years before humans. They set up shop and kept a balanced budget between the carbon in the sky and the carbon stored in the trees and forest soils. This worked well until we started pumping record amounts of carbon dioxide into the air. Forests are the guardians of a balanced climate and one of our best shields against climate change.
The world's forests store more carbon than is contained in the earth's entire atmosphere. Conservation of forests is acknowledged to be one of the most inexpensive ways to combat global warming by immediately reducing carbon emissions. They're not waiting for government seed funding or venture capital for research. They don't require a senate supermajority. Forests just need to be protected to protect the balance. Forests are our healers, life support, homes and climate accountants.
The provincial government and forest industry are now chasing after China's exponentially growing wood demand yet only 37 per cent of British Columbians are satisfied with the way our government manages B.C. forests. It's time to identify the amount of forestry that is truly sustainable and the amount of forest that needs to be conserved to protect the wild we call home.
A message to Premier Clark: As you finish reading your copy of The Vancouver Sun today, sip the water in your hot coffee and breathe, remember that our forests work hard for us. You can "help B.C. families" by protecting our forests, and therefore our future.
Valerie Langer is the B.C. forest campaign director at ForestEthics in Vancouver.
Marlene Cummings is the B.C. forest campaigner at ForestEthics.
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Five+cool+things+forests/4475753/story.html#ixzz1HFdju4Jj
