Timber Frames and Conditions The World

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Land is made up of different types of terrain largely by the situation of the soil, boulders and the timber. It could be as woodland, as mountains or mountainous, as desert or rolling flat-lands.

Yet land without trees, like the Nullabor (no timber) plains in Australia, is bare except for salt shrubbery, some local flora and animals. Furthermore, being waterless, these plains are very hot, unproductive and unwanted.

Land with lots of timber is fruitful, cool, humid, appealing and also substantially alive. Whenever we remove the trees from this type of territory what exactly are we all doing to the earth?

We cannot live without trees and the fewer trees there are the less you will have in later life. This post talks about exactly why we should stop killing the forests. The item talks about safeguarding the timber we have and planting trees at every opportunity.

It asks the people of the world to stop this murder of our future.

Many say the world is three billion years old, others state six billion. Just what matters is the fact that it took many years for the world to get to the favourable condition that it is today.  Conditions that are favourable for the existence of all creatures, including human beings.

It was once totally out of the question for warm blooded animals to live in the heat and conditions that prevailed in the course of, say, the Dinosaur Age. Considerably more people may connect with that explanation better than to the Miocene or Pliocene Eras.

These kind of times are geologically contingent on remains associated with shellfish as well as things which do not have a lot bearing on this particular report. But in some ways they do.

Shellfish are marine dwelling creatures and wherever they are discovered is in areas once blanketed by ocean.  This in turn possibly rose up to develop mountains or perhaps the sea levels fell leaving the land exposed.

However, these were likewise periods with no trees. What has been identified are ancient plants like ferns and algae. The climate then was vastly different compared to that of today.

It appears that the first timber could have been a variety of fern that resulted in a primitive palm tree with a trunk. The very first identified timber developed about four hundred and fifty million years ago, well ahead of the primary vertebrates or warm blooded creatures appeared. The first timber with leaves and roots developed some one hundred million years later, so it would have been a gradual process. All the while the environment was also altering.

We may consider this to be a wonderful master strategy with the ultimate objective of developing a habitable world for human beings.

So consider exactly what was required to produce that environment.

The food we eat, the plant life we all rely on, the medicines we require as well as the buildings to shelter people are all extracted from the planet.

One of the principle conditioning factors was, and continues to be, the trees.

Enter Mankind

Roots were a significant part of tree evolution,. Similarly significance can be seen in the seeds of trees and the methods to disperse these throughout the globe. Wind is an obvious choice in distribution, but the actual heroes involving seeds are birds, reptiles and insects.

All of us know there initially were plant eating creatures and early birds as well as other species which could do the job, in addition to the insects that existed to pollinate and bury the seed in the ground.

Yet birds, insects and animals that live in and about trees and shrubs additionally developed with them. Reptiles learnt to fly when leaping from tree to tree and wings developed using their arm limbs. Fruit and leaf eating insects jumped around and flying became a further stage of their development. Once in flight, all berries and fruit consumed resulted in seeds becoming excreted. On falling to the ground, with various other waste substances, these seeds germinated to become new vegetation or trees and shrubs.

This was further aided by the deposits of dung coming from creatures and birds that came to feast upon the seeds and then on the vegetation that evolved. Subsequently ground worms evolved to condition and fertilize the land even more.

Some other insects played their own part through ingesting the rotten substance of both vegetation and wildlife and also taking that right down to blend with the rotting earth until it attained a phase in which brand new types of seed products growth result in brand new types of plant life, animals as well as birds. It had become a balanced exercise where all was in proportion.

Land when covered by ocean was very salty and only salt tolerant plants, like mangroves, could possibly adjust before the decaying substance accumulated the compost as well as other plants developed and adapted. Gradually the ground built in height together with soil deposits covering the sand and salts form the sea.

However, the salt (most often sodium) remains beneath the land in most places. But if conditions change, as with the harvesting of trees and shrubs, the water table may climb and the sodium can be brought back again towards the surface.

For this later reason there exists a significant march of wasteland disorders throughout several continents. North western regions of China, for example, are losing extraordinary amounts of agriculture property.

The huge number of years all this conditioning took to happen is being wiped out in a few generations of selfish, ignorant and unnecessary property clearing and the dying of jungles. The wealthy companies who carry out this work and the misguided government authorities who allowing it to occur, seem to expect that everything will return to normal in a short time.

They are regretfully mistaken.

Mankind and all life on the planet has already been paying the cost.

Trees greatly influence their surroundings as they moderate the environment and give shade to the land. By their natural process of growth they absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the surroundings and deliver oxygen to the air, so they strengthen quality of air. They also keep water and CO2 within their trunks and roots and bring water from deep underground to release it in the environment. This moisture is sucked up into the atmosphere and, subsequently, falls as rain or snow.

Such a thing happens due to a capillary action inside the stems and the production of water through the leaf structure. As it evaporates and makes its way into the environment further moisture is drawn in the root base.

It is this function that keeps the drinking water table low and permits the earth below the tree to keep healthy and then for vegetation along with creatures to reside there. Where the underground water table rises, as it has in parts of  Australia, for example, the earth becomes sour as the sodium salts rise to destroy it. The moment this happens the property is no longer good for normal plant growth, other than sodium tolerant plants.

It is amazing the way the climate and plants work together to maintain the planet human friendly.

But are we changing that?

All over the word the climate and quality of the atmosphere is being significantly altered. Look at the Amazon jungle, huge amounts of trees are cleared daily.

Trees and shrubs harbour creatures and a lot of animals and birds. Similarly insects and invertebrates make their homes within tree stems. Then there is the expended wood and leaves the trees drop.

Trees modify the environment through reducing the effects of strong sunlight, violent wind, and bad weather. Their particular evolution is a part of a master strategy to prepare the planet for warm blooded wildlife that could not survive without them, this includes humankind.

However with the destruction of environment creatures are quickly becoming destroyed and human beings are suffering the consequences at the same time.

The leaves of timber absorb carbon dioxide that it employs, in addition to water and natural light, to make chlorophyll, the material the leaves manufacture via photosynthesis. The water is drawn upward in the roots and the carbon dioxide is taken in from the atmosphere. The water is divided into hydrogen and oxygen molecules by the power from the light. The hydrogen combines with the carbon dioxide inside the cell to make a simple sugar. The oxygen (O2) is then eliminated from the leaves through the same stomata (small holes underneath the leaves) that the carbon dioxide utilized to enter.

Trees developed in collaboration with the carbon dioxide in the air and the process of photosynthesis gives nutrition for the plant but also for many animal species that live from it, including humans. The sugar manufactured in the leaves is stored in fruit, nuts, flowers and seed available to all. Fallen fruit is eaten by ground inhabitants, such as mammals, that could normally be unable to reach it.

Trees and shrubs additionally generate chemical compounds which human beings and animals have learned to use for their advantage. Included in this are the many types of remedies for healing as well as harmful toxins for protection of certain tree inhabitants.

The Australian koala bear is a case in point. They have adapted to the toxins in the eucalyptus leaves. The eucalyptus tree is their only food. Other animals will not climb these kinds of trees to gather the leaves and so disrupt the koalas, which also possess weak vision and are quite sluggish movers.

Right now there is a battle in Australia to attempt to end harvesting of an area of forest housing a number of these increasingly rare and beautiful creatures. Japanese interests received the rights to harvest there and the trees are chipped for numerous uses in Japan. All of which is a loss for Australia.

Deserts on the move

Timbered areas prevent flooding when forests are left unchanged. But by simply clearing them and building properties in flood-plains, or perhaps where property slides could arise, men and women become victim of the natural environment.

Humans don’t seem to have an understanding of the need to safeguard the things we depend on for life.

Remove the trees and shrubs and you remove the lungs from the earth.

Practically nothing else, aside from the ocean, can soak up carbon dioxide and exchange it for oxygen. Nothing else manufactures a similar amount of food. No other plant provides the shade, the safety, the water vapour needed for rain and snow. And almost nothing else lives as long.

The roots of trees and shrubs stabilise the property and prevent soil erosion and sliding. Hillsides count on trees and shrubs to maintain their cover.

Without trees the world becomes unsound. The very earth can move in the right circumstances, for example heavy rain, flash floods, earthquakes, snow build up and so on.

The results of this movement can be very damaging. We have observed recently the heavy loss of life when numerous villages and towns were swallowed up by mud slides after severe logging had occurred in places as far apart as Kenya, Peru and Taiwan.

Such destruction mostly occurs as a consequence of harvesting in forests. But there are other causes, for example constructing on unstable hillsides and the typical land clearing associated with the construction of these properties.

Some trees have been dated to well over 2,000 years of age. Throughout that time they have developed large established roots and stored up unimaginable quantities of carbon dioxide. The longer a tree survives the greater valued is its wood. Yet in Tasmania trees of that sort of age are now being cut down for timber chips. The stumps and plants ripped away along with the trees are burnt off and the carbon dioxide is put back into the atmosphere.

Is it any surprise that parts of Australia are fighting massive drought?

The south eastern section of the country has suffered a 10 year prolonged drought and normal water storage and water levels are at an all time low. This harvesting, together with huge fires that break out in the region, is having a devastating impact on the natural environment.

A recent example occurred on February 7th 2009 when such a fire saw a number of communities destroyed and more than four hundred homes burned to the ground. Nearly two hundred men and women lost their lives and a huge number of acres of land were ruined. At the same time, an enormous amount of animals were destroyed.

In Western Australia, Perth, the capital city, hasn’t experienced a drop of rain for 6 months. The area around this city used to be a important farming region.

Exactly what are we able to do to stop our world becoming demolished?

If you have any ideas, please post them in the comments section below.