Could This Be Goodbye For Our Tree Friends?

Deforestation is a big problem. Trees provide oxygen for Earth, and they come with nice smells, looks, and sometimes even fruits! But what is deforestation? 

Deforestation is exactly what it sounds like. De-forest-ation. Cutting down trees. But why do we need to cut down trees? If they really are so good for the planet, why can't we just leaf them be? (Hehe. Tree joke!) 

We need to cut down trees because trees provide wood and can be turned into lots of different things including shelters and paper! We use paper a lot, I'll admit, I do too. But there are many ways to reduce your paper use that can be found at the bottom of this article. Also, since we need to build so many more houses with wood, this problem is linked to the world population problem, which is coming up soon in a blog post. 

This problem is quite like the post about cutting down the Amazon Rainforest, but these are different. The Amazon being cut down was not good because of all the habitat loss, but with just forests in general, the problem is much more than that. This means that there are different solutions. 

Not only do they keep us breathing, trees also provide shelter to many many people, they provide shade for us in the summer, they can be turned into paper, and they are an outstanding material to build with. They also use carbon dioxide and turn it into wood which is amazing and very cool! Can't you tell that trees are awesome?

Some people say 'Cut down one tree, plant two more,' and I think that that is a good idea, because we have already lost so many trees and need lots more. If we plant more and more trees then eventually we will be able to make up for all the trees we lost due to deforestation. 

Did you know that, between 1990 and 2016, we lost 1.3 million square kilometers of forest in the world? That's an area larger than South Africa! According to a study in 2015, we have cut down 46% of trees since humans started chopping. 

But fortunately, there are several solutions to this horrible problem. They are the following. 

• Plant trees. An estimated 400 billion trees live around the world according to satellites, but we cut down 15 billion trees every year, so if we don't plant more, then we will run out of wood in less than 27 years! 
• Use less paper or recycle. We all use paper, sometimes even more than we need to, and don't worry, you aren't the only guilty one here. But you also aren't the only one here who's considering changing their ways and using less paper (*wink, wink, nudge, nudge*). But if you can't use less paper, recycling more is awesome too because then we can reuse that paper and don't have to cut down more trees! 
• Spend time in nature and appreciate it. Who knows how long that forest you love so much is going to last? One day, the government may decide to cut it down out of nowhere and then it's gone before you realized you would miss it. I love nature and spending time in it makes me happy, and I know that if the government decided to cut down the forest behind my house, I would be devastated. That's why I spend lots of time outside, because better safe than sorry! 
• Share the word! For all of these problems, merely informing others about them will really help. So please share my blog with others because Earth is really important to all of us and if there's too many large problems, then we won't last much longer. 

Thank you so much for reading today's blog post! Please check my blog again every week for more information on how to help save the earth. Every view means a lot to me. Together, we can change the world. 

-EarthLover24