They have a zero carbon footprint. Indeed, trees consume as much CO2 as they produce at night. The real lungs of the planet are the oceans with phytoplankton.
They prevent the creation of new arable land, suitable for farming.
They require a lot of maintenance. It is necessary to constantly shave ground vegetation in the corners of the world where fires easily spread. They emit large amounts of greenhouse gases when they burn.
Benefits of forests
Forests are a refuge for fauna and flora. They protect the diversity of life. More forests means more space, more places to live for humans and animals. We can maintain trees to cut some of them to produce energy, furniture, paper, … We can hunt game when it swarms.
They evacuate the water from the precipitations they captured by evaporation and transpiration. The climate of the region becomes wetter, less dry. The soil has a much larger volume thanks to forests, it is covered with earthworms, fungi, aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. The leaves pile up and become soil in which the new plants will draw their essential nutrients.
With the humidity, the shadows of the trees, the temperature of the soil drops noticeably. It refreshes itself. With the multitude of plants, also come fruit plants, leguminous plants, medicinal plants, flowering plants and therefore bees and honey in some countries. With their excrement the animals add fertilizer, they carry the seeds on their coats.
Forests therefore offer considerable resources.
They can help to regulate air quality, water quality, avoid flooding, reduce soil erosion. You can develop ecotourism with hiking trails.
The forest in the future?
The forest of our days is fragmented, it is almost impossible to find a large block of pure forest nowadays, whether in Europe or the United States. They are necessarily cut with the presence of fields, crops, residential lands.
On the one hand, it means fewer people getting lost or being killed in the middle of trees.
But on the other side, it also means that the fields are invading the territory too much. Fields that serve 80% of food tanks for animals. Only artificially composed food thanks to organic 3D printing can put an end to this craze for soil profitability. But for that, it will still be necessary to wait 50, or even 75 years.
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