What would happen to us if we lost our forest?

The forest is a complex ecosystem consisting mainly of trees that buffer the earth and

support a myriad of life forms. The trees help create a special environment which, in turn,

affects the kinds of animals and plants that can exist in the forest. Trees are an important

component of the environment. They clean the air, cool it on hot days, conserve heat at night,

and act as excellent sound absorbers.

There's an old philosophy joke: "If a tree falls in the woods but no one is there to hear it, does it

really make a sound?" A physicist says, "Of course it does—sound waves were created." A

philosopher says, "No, it does not, since no one was there to perceive the sound." A logger says,

"What? I couldn't hear you over the chain saw."

There are lots of trees falling in the woods these days, which prompted us to ask the question

“What would happen to us if we lost our forest?”, which generally speaks about human’s

survival ability as it relates to the survival of the forest for most of the needed resources emerge

from the forest and with all of that a new question stands forth “Can humans survive with no

vegetation on earth?”

While it is true that trees dominate - they are the biggest organisms present there and there are

many of them - a forest is in fact a community of not just plants and animals, but of micro-

organisms as well. 
Throw into the mix the non-living, abiotic components like soil, climate and water, and take in

the complex interrelationships among the organisms and the environment, and we are closer to

an actual understanding of this ecosystem. With one third of the  Earth's surface is covered with

forests it is no surprise that they are among the most notable storehouses of biological diversity

on the planet. Forests house over two-thirds of known terrestrial species, including the largest

share of threatened species. Forests have a variety of uses to humans, including wood from trees,

nutrition from animals, grazing, recreation, medicinal plants and so on. While that may be so, it

is important to understand how the disappearing green covers and the resultant threat to habitats

and to human life fits into the bigger picture of life on the planet.

We are destroying many different types of beautiful trees and plants, Ebony and Mahogany

being part. These different plants and trees may not be around much longer. We may lose some

of the world's most beautiful trees and lose the effects that these trees produce.

The forests house over one half of the world's different species. Destroying the forests causes

loss of homes to these different species. Some of the animals there have helped us to find cures

and leads to various diseases. We may even be able to find a cure for AIDS or Cancer but not if

we continue to destroy. Some of these creatures have already become extinct and future

generations will never be able to witness them.

Animals aren't the only ones that live in the forests. Many different tribes of Indians reside in

these forests. When we cut down areas of trees, we are taking away their homes as well. They

live off of the land of the rainforests, surviving through the different plant and animal life there.

Destroying the forests makes it very hard to get the food and other materials needed. These

people must then find another area to move to and are forced out of their homes are they will not
survive. If these people are obliterated, we lose different and useful information that we obtain

from these people.

Destroying these forests greatly effects all of us as well. Without the trees, we would not have air

to breathe. Temperature rise would make it almost if not unbearable to live. Animal and plant

extinction may make it impossible to be able to find cures and to make medicines in the future.

Saving these forests keeps countries from having to pay a high cost from massive forest loss and

degradation. Soil erosion, river siltation, and wood shortages are some of the costs that would

arise from the destruction. If not stopped soon, we may all be facing the consequences of our

actions.

The success of the forest avails to success of humans and their long lives so they need to

understand that the likelihood of human survival on this planet without vegetation is nil. This is

because of the symbiotic relationship between vegetation, our atmosphere and each living

organism that derives nutrients from vegetation. This in turn provides food for insects; insects

become the food supply for higher animal life forms and so on. In this way almost every living

thing on the planet forms part of a complex living matrix with interdependency between multiple

singular elements.

History has recorded the rise and fall of literally millions of different species far back in time.

The most notable example of life disappearing from the planet was some event of approximately

60 million years ago where speculation suggests the impact of a massive celestial body darkened

skies on a global scale. Plant life died and subsequently most living creatures also died. It was
only the exceptional that managed to survive, mostly these seemed limited to reptiles and sea

creatures such as sharks and rays.

Trees and vegetation replenish our oxygen supply by absorbing carbon dioxide and then

releasing oxygen. It is for this reason the Amazon jungle is frequently referred to as the lungs of

the earth' and this planet seems to be experiencing a growing problem with significant

atmospheric changes some believe are related to the deforestation of the Amazon. Other vast

tropical forests in Asia are laid waste by greedy corporations harvesting valuable and in may

cases quite rare timber species used to adorn domicile of the wealthy.

With the rapidly accelerating rate of deforestation entire species are becoming extinct. Incursion

of human habitat into the natural world displaces thousands of animals which then face the

challenge of adapting, or they die. Most are incapable of adapting. Given the interdependency

between vegetation and animal life it is only a matter of time before a critical point is reached

where the consequential damage destroys a key element of the planet's matrix of life and triggers

another global extinction event.

Irrespective of how advanced technology has become humans are no more capable of adapting to

and surviving a massive die-out of almost all other life forms. Reverting to eking out a living by

scavenging will not succeed because we have come too far down the evolutionary path and our

bodies could no longer tolerate this kind of nutrient. Our only chance of survival is to clean up

our act, clean up our environment and look to sustainable industries for raw materials. Protecting

forests and plant life is an essential condition to our longevity as a species.

In means to reiterate, No human beings could not survive without any vegetation on Earth. There

are two basic ecological reasons for this: plants provide us with oxygen, and plants are at the

base of all food chains.

Ecologically, plants (flora) and animals (fauna) are interrelated in what is known as the "carbon

cycle." The carbon cycle involves the passing of basic chemicals, particularly oxygen and

carbon, through a complex cycle involving all life on earth.

Plants in general subsist not only on sunlight, water and soil nutrients, but also on carbon

dioxide, which they absorb from the atmosphere. The carbon molecules are stored and used by

their metabolism, while the oxygen is released into the atmosphere. This means that forests, for

example, are "carbon sinks" which not only store carbon but also cleanse the atmosphere of

excessive amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2). This is why both tree planting and preventing

deforestation are important steps for dealing with global warming, since they not only help to

lower the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, but also take carbon "out of circulation," as it were.

Animals are the opposite. They breathe in oxygen and exhale CO2, since carbon is a "waste"

product where animals are concerned. The animal and vegetable are thus two poles of a causal

cycle, each complementary to the other. Under natural conditions, the larger carbon cycle

maintains the atmospheric concentration of both gases within the optimal range for the existence

of contemporary terrestrial life.

Consequently, eliminating either plants or animals would eventually result in the death of the

other. This is because each require the existence of the other in order to continue to live

themselves.
The carbon cycle is also an excellent example of the cyclicity, or recursiveness of ecosystem

processes at all levels. The same materials are continually recycled through the system, with no

loss or waste. Yet this cycling is necessary to the existence of the biosphere as whole.

The second reason animal life, including humans, could not continue to exist without vegetation

is that vegetation forms the base of all food chains. Food chains are another manner in which all

life is interlinked in larger patterns of material and energy exchange. Food chains are also

cyclical, and involve the passing of energy and materials from one "trophic" or nutritional level

to another.

For example, a grass hopper eats grass. A frog eats a grass hopper. A trout eats a frog. A human

eats a trout. At each stage much of the material of the lower stage is directly consumed and

digested, but only a portion of the energy (calories) pass from one trophic level to the next

(roughly 10 percent).

In general, herbivores or plant eaters are "above" plants, while carnivores or meat eaters are

"above" herbivores, or "higher" in the food chain. In general, those species in "lower" trophic

levels also exist in greater numbers than those in "higher" levels. This is necessary both because

carnivores must eat /several/ herbivores to survive, for example, but also because only a portion

of the energy from lower levels is passed up the food chain. Thus, food chains are often

represented as a having a pyramidal structure, or even referred to as "food pyramids."

In reality, however, as with most patterns of organization in ecosystems, the food "pyramid" is

actually a cycle. This is because plants and animals at all levels, even those at the "top" like
humans, also die. In death, they return their bodily substance to the soil, where various

"decomposers" (worms, insects, soil bacteria) break this organic substance down and turn it back

into soil. Soil from which plants grow.

So I'm sure you can see that without plants, the entire food web, as it is more accurately called,

would collapse.

Of course, one could now venture into the realm of science fiction and speculate about

mechanical processes or genetic engineering replacing these natural processes through artificial

means (such as synthetic food or atmospheric processors). But such technologies are fiction. And

given currently available technology, and currently available knowledge of ecosystem

functioning, human life is inextricably linked to the existence of vegetation.

Forests come in all sizes and types - from the northern taiga to the scrub forests of arid regions to

the rainforests of the humid tropics. They are found on moving glaciers, in fresh and salt water,

on arctic mountain slopes. They do not occur in isolation from the rest of the landscape. The type

of forest in a given area depends on many elements, including climate, soil, water source, rainfall

patterns, seed sources and mostly human influence. 

The complex ecological relationships involving forests could allow humans to benefit from them

in a variety of ways. However, a deeper understanding of these relationships is crucial for the

development of effective, sustainable forest management and policy options.

Quite simply-without vegetation, no life of any kind more complex than single-celled organisms

would exist on this Earth, let alone humans.

"People who will not sustain trees will soon live in a world that will not sustain people." 

Romario Jarrett
Holland High School
11Confidence