It is impossible for us to forget July 28, 2021, and how Manavgat was engulfed in flames, followed by 160 fires breaking out in 34 provinces across our country within the next week. We want the disaster to end as soon as possible and never happen again. This desire for it "never to happen again" is precisely the subject of this article.
NO OXYGEN
Although it varies depending on its type, species, age, and climate, a tree is thought to produce, on average, the oxygen breathed by 10-12 people in a day. So, even cutting down just one tree means the loss of a day's worth of oxygen for 10-12 people, or in other words, a reduction of one day from their lives.
NO ANIMALS
80% of terrestrial animals depend on forests to survive. The death of animals means a huge gap in the ecosystem and also a significant deprivation of food for humankind.
NO RAIN
Just one mature, large tree can send 150 tons of water into the atmosphere annually, allowing rain to fall. Without forests, soil temperature rises. Trees dry up, leading to massive fires. These fires cause the sky to be covered in soot. The sun is blocked. There will be no harvest in agricultural areas, potentially leading to a global famine.
NO SHADE
Trees grow upwards towards the sky. This allows their branches to extend, and their leaves to grow and expand, thus creating shade. Shade is what we look for most when we have to go out these days.
NO STABLE EARTH
Landslides and floods increase. Trees, through their roots, prevent the soil from absorbing too much floodwater. However, without trees, material and moral losses caused by landslides and floods will occur.
NO AQUIFERS
Water drips through tree roots into aquifers, or underground water storage sources, which provide water for a large part of drinking, sanitation, and irrigation needs. Trees do not let water run away. They preserve water underground, allowing clean and fresh water to accumulate under the soil over the years.
NO CLEAN AIR
Trees play a role in cleaning many harmful gases and particles that cause air pollution. They purify the air not only by absorbing carbon dioxide but also by cleaning harmful gases such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide.
NO MEDICINE
Many of the medicines used today originate from forests and the plants that can thrive there. Theophylline, essential for asthma patients, a very common respiratory illness, is obtained from cocoa trees. More than half of the medicines used for cancer also come from plants in rainforests.
NO JOBS
The timber industry, which can provide employment by felling trees when they are ready, farmers who earn income from growing and harvesting fruit trees, those involved in animal husbandry, various outdoor sports... Forests provide job opportunities for far more people than generally thought.
NO ECOLOGICAL TOURISM
The pandemic, in particular, showed everyone the importance of tourism. Many parts of the world, like our country, have areas that are ecological tourism centers. If forests, where many sports like camping, hiking, cycling, climbing, and rafting are practiced, and areas that become tourist attractions merely due to their ecological richness, disappear, then tourism will also DISAPPEAR.
You can research it; you will see many more benefits of even a single tree. Of course, nature will renew itself; of course, trees will sprout again. But we must also do our part. Our responsibilities begin with very simple and daily steps like not littering in the streets, not taking more than we need, not wasting food, and not spending too much time even in the shower.
HOPE
Let's not forget; we may have massacred nature, but we cannot destroy it. We don't have the power for that. It doesn't need us; we need it. If something is to disappear, it won't be nature; it will be us. We are aware of all this, but we are never hopeless. Because life has always found a way, and the number of people who will support it in its own path is never small.
May it never happen again, not just in our country, but in no region of the world...