A clever way for thieves to steal from a store is to switch price tags on items, putting low prices on items of higher value. The thieves then purchase the items. This technique works best in stores where cashiers are oblivious to the true value of the merchandise and too busy to take notice of obvious discrepancies.
Like the pre-occupied cashiers, we don’t know the value of our natural resources and are too busy to notice that they are grossly undervalued. We might be tired and overworked, or so distracted that we don’t clue in. Developers keen to turn a quick profit are the ones who stand to gain.
This happens in third-world countries where rainforests brimming with biodiversity are razed to make way for single crops that strip the soil of its nutrients and contribute to erosion. It also happens in wealthier nations where scrub lands with shorter trees are filled with concrete by residential and business park developers focused on turning a quick profit.
In resource-rich Canada, we take for granted the cleanliness of our seemingly endless supply of clean air and water, not fully realizing the role trees play in their presence. In one year, a large tree can supply enough clean air for a family of four to breathe and a single medium-sized tree can filter over 2000 gallons of water. We cut down old growth forests and pat ourselves on the back when we fill the bare spaces with tiny seedlings that will take several lifetimes to mature. We fail to appreciate how much trees buffer noise, create windbreaks, intercept rainfall, hold and create soil, absorb carbon dioxide and provide a habitat for wildlife. Even their beauty is uplifting. But because we have so many trees here in Canada, we take them for granted.
The law of supply and demand dictates that our trees will increase in value as they become less abundant. But why do we have to wait until then to appreciate them? The United Nations has declared 2011 to be the International Year of Forests in an effort to heighten awareness of their value to mankind.
If a 24K bar of gold weighing 28 lbs is worth approximately half a million dollars, what is the value of a single tree?
For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.
~ Martin Luther
Gold bar photo credit: Sybil Nunn
It’s painful to watch a tree cut down. We are blithe to the real value trees provide to our environment. It would be a sad world without trees… if we lasted at all.
Dawn, one large tree can supply enough clean air for a family of four to breathe. Our fates are certainly entwined.
I think North Americans are used to thinking that we can always grow more of anything, that we have limitless wilderness. That’s partly because we are so unimaginably rich in resources and partly because we are human and want what we want. But I think we have been moving toward a new ethic, and I think that in its broad outlines the movement to protect land and water crosses many of the political divides that bedevil us. The details, of course . . .
Gerry, we do seem to be moving jointly toward a new ethic. I just find the movement excruciatingly slow. Locally, air and water filtering bogs continue being filled to make way for new housing developments. Once they’re filled, we can’t make new ones. Instead of making better use of land we’ve already claimed for residential and business development, we encroach on wild spaces and if their inhabitants react by acting, er, wild, we put a bounty of them.
I’ve heard a few people say (after flying over land) “There’s still so much untouched land; why are we worried about clearcutting, there’s plenty out there?” or something along those lines. If it’s true that there’s more left untouched than is disturbed, doesn’t that just show how little it takes to upset the balance given our present environmental problems? I don’t see it has a reson to use more just because it appears we humans take up less space when seen from above. It’s funny how different perspectives can be. I have a completely different reaction when flying over land.
Grace, I wondered about just that while writing this post. Seeing Canada’s vast wild spaces from the sky is certainly awe-inspiring. But at our present rate, it’s only a matter of time before we take a big bite out of that too. Nothing’s going to change until we each begin to take it personally and redefine our definitions of progress.
Also, climate change is a global phenomenon…but its those smalls islands that might be the first victims, or countries with large population that cannot endure a crop failure. And what about countless species that are going extinct.
Amy-Lynn, I love your visual contrast between the bar of metal and the living tree. In fact, this whole post is very important. Please add “hold and create soil” to your list of what trees do for us, though. While the contribution of an individual tree can be very great, and “we can always plant more trees,” a tree plantation is a monoculture, not a forest. Thanks again.
Pamela, my friend Sybil at http://crittersnus.blogspot.com/2011/01/trip-back-east-er-west.html recently wrote about her trip to the Royal Canadian Mint and I was inspired by the photo of her holding the bar of gold. Yesterday over tea we talked about how ridiculous it was for an inanimate bar of metal to be worth so much. Our values seem so misplaced.
I’ve added ‘hold and create soil’ to the text
Monocultures have their limitations in ways we’re just beginning to discover.
Great post Amy-Lynn. Makes me think of the Joni Mitchell song: “you never know what you’ve got till it’s gone – paved paradise – put up a parking lot”.
Sybil, it’s hard to believe that song was written over 40 years ago. But what she said back then is still true. Unfortunately.
SIGH! But such is the course of progress…as cities burgeon, they encroach upon agricultural land, forests are cleared for mining and new agricultural land…what are we thinking, that the earth is infinite?? I feel only mother nature can take corrective action…and save herself
Swaps, with all the natural disasters happening around the world, it seems like Nature is lashing out in reaction… The terrible flooding in Queensland Australia and yesterday the mudslide in Brazil that’s already thought to have killed 500 people. I wonder to what extent that mudslide was caused or made worse by clearcutting.
Gold can’t do a darn thing that a tree can! Keep the gold, give me a million trees instead!
Thanks for the reminder about how precious trees are. Growing up in the woods I took them for granted for the most part, but in recent years I’ve cultivated more appreciation for the wonders they hold and for how important they are to humans and to the health of our planet. And you’re so right about their beauty being uplifting! How often a foul mood simply disappears while walking through the woods.
Barbara, it seems that as we grow older we appreciate the natural world more and more. I’ve read that trees’ ability to uplift our mood may be their greatest contribution. We just haven’t found a way of measuring their impact yet.
Being a relatively new dad and at the beginning of my career in education, I’m starting to think the same thing of children – we don’t appreciate their true value!
Pepsoid, funny you should say that… I thought about children frequently while writing this post and how much we undervalue them too.
Great minds!
An important post, Amy-Lynn. Very well expressed and illustrated. You know I am SO with you.