Each year, people burn or cut down 143,000 square kilometers (55,000 square miles) of the forest. People who burn or cut down trees do it for different reasons: farmers cut down trees in order to get more fertilize lands to grow rice or vegetables, and use the woods as fuel. Timber companies cut down trees and turn them into furniture or paper productions. As to goal miners, they remove the forests to find out whether there are goal underground.
However, many of us fail to realize that forests are the lungs of the earth. When we cut down trees, we also push ourselves in to a dangerous situation. That is the global warming. When you come to think about it, there are only few ways to solve these negative effects: stop cutting down trees blindly; try to find some clear energy that can replace oil and coal. But these solutions can be impractical to some degreed.
Why trees can be so important to the whole nature? First of all, trees are the habitat of many animals. When we cut down trees, we not only destroy animals’ habitats but also ourselves. We just gradually destroy natural links. The result is that many spices of animals and plants are dying out. Secondly, cutting down trees cause global warming, to some degree. Naturalists compare forest to human’s lungs. The forests absorb the carbon dioxide and other gas that cause global warming, and then give off the oxygen that good for the human beings and other living creatures. It’s refreshed the air as well as reduced the noise. If the air quality is bad, people may die from cancers, or the new diseases for which they have no immunity. Forests also play an important role in the prevention of natural disasters. Warmer temperatures cause water to expand and also create more water by melting polar ice caps. That’s to say, the nations which near the ocean may have been flooded by the water. But the forests can prevent water loss and soil erosion, and cool off the global temperatures. It’s the key to keep the balance of the nature.
Sometimes people only care about money making; they don’t care about the price we pay for the pollution. When the disaster is around the corner, we may be afraid and frustrated. The earth, on which our economies have always been based, is suddenly threatening our existence. All we hope that is this overpopulated, over industrialized planet can carry on for a longer time. And maybe, it’s time for us to realize that we should protect the earth, stop cutting down trees blindly and madly.
