Illegally logged trees amount to one-third of all forest area that is cleared in Malaysia each year according to the World Wildlife Fund. An insanely large amount of lush green forest area is being simply destroyed.

That is exactly the reason why the Malaysian government is doing all it can to ensure that illegal logging is stopped with immediate effect. Operation Eye in the Sky allows the government authorities of Malaysia to constantly monitor forest area using direct satellite images.

Darus Ahmad, deputy director-general with the Malaysian Remote Sensing Agency confirmed that the program has been in place since last October and for now it covers only the western peninsular part of Malaysia. The country has lost more than 13% of its forest area in the 90s alone and with the national economy heavily dependant on its timber industry, there’s an urgent economic and ecological need to protect its forests.

One can only hope that the program meant to save the planet’s rich forest resources won’t just stop at this, but extends to other regions of the world that are still home to lush green tropical forests. [via Physorg]

Image courtesy of thaths

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It seems ironic and even startling to an extent when one gets to know that the paper industry across the world produces three times more carbon emissions than aviation industry.

It might be a touch unbelievable, but if you consider the fact that thousands of acres of trees are mowed down for paper and that subsequently only adds to carbon footprint, this is not all that surprising.

In the wake of UK formation of organizations such as Shrink which are asking people to reduce their paper consumption by 50% in UK and French supremo Sarkozy following the path, it only is fair that the entire planet takes up the cause as well.

Those who often calculate the carbon footprint left over by the paper industry, forget to add in the number of trees that have been chopped down for the wood. These reduced number of trees automatically means greater pollution.

According to a survey conducted by Xerox, 45% of all paper used by employees in firms reaches the dustbin. This, along with all the junk mail that we get further adds to wastage in paper. It is easy to look past something that we consider such an integral part of our life and waste it callously while it could still cause plenty of damage to the planet.

Using paper judiciously and reducing its wastage can easily help conserve more trees and also cut down on the whole carbon footprint. Many paper plantations are already highly contentious, especially in developing nations. By not printing stuff that we do not really need and by using recycled paper as often as we can, we can indeed help cut down on the staggering figures that are in front of us today.

Remember that every time you save a sheet of paper, you are adding something meaningful to the planet.

Source: The Guardian
Image courtesy of Deibu

If you delve deeper into the world of tress and shrubs around us, then you will find more reasons as to why we need to protect the existent forest cover in the world and why we need more trees to make the planet a better place.

Till recently scientists believed that trees countered the phenomenon of global warming by just absorbing the carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. In effect, reduction of carbon emissions was their only contribution towards cooling the planet.

But a new study indicates that there is a lot more going on than meets the eye!

Trees release a chemical called Terpenes which helps form aerosols by reacting with particles in the atmosphere. These aerosols ensure that the clouds form thicker than normal.

Dominick Spracklen, of the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science at Leeds University, the brain behind the research, says that his team found this effect prevalent in boreal forests across northern regions such as Canada, Scandinavia and Russia. The release of Terpenes ensured clouds doubled in thickness some 1,000m above the forests, and could reflect an extra 5% sunlight back into space.

In fact, it is these Terpenes that give pine forests their unique aroma and scientists now believe that this effect would surely go a long way in slowing down the effects of global warming. A 5% of additional sunlight being reflected back into space is actually a huge difference and this can cause a cooling effect that can effectively combat global warming.

Any other conclusion than being good stewards to the planet and not steal its forest? We need to plant more trees. It’s a fact!

Source : The Guardian

Image courtesy of uBookworn

I know you guys can read, but I just feel like saying it out loud, again.

“Only when the last tree has died, and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught, will we realise that we can not eat money“

There’s so much truth in that … – via AmericansAreBrainwashed

Would you have thought that these trees are meant to rotate?

For this year’s biennial arts festival in Liverpool, UK, the guys responsible for the Blur Building, Diller, Scofidio and Renfro, are going to introduce the visitors to their “Arbores Laetae” installation, also known as the Joyful Trees. Yes, these three trees in the middle of other 17 trees are the only ones moving confusing all those passing by.

I know the festival is all about the contemporan art and the weird, but I’ll have to be honest that I’d wish these guys would have come up with a motto or a slogan for their rotating trees, that would determine people to go home, buy a tree and put it in the ground for the many years to come.

Link

There are times, when we think we’ve done enough bad and it’s time for some good. A couple of years ago when I didn’t care much about the planet, pollution and stuff like that, I realized that I’ve never planted a tree in my life. So what happened? I bought one and planted it in my parent’s garden, at their house outside the city.

Since then, technology advanced, and for those that won’t plant a real tree we have the solution. The solar tree. Designed by Vivien Muller and using 54 photovoltaic cells (when blooming) it has a bonsai tree aspect (with some sort of solar “leaves”?) and is both a great piece of decoration and a pretty useful eco-gadget; doesn’t require watering and will power at least some of your electronics by using solar power.

So what are you going to do, buy a solar tree for your gadgets or seed a real tree? I’ll go for the latter.

via Gizmodo

For more than 20 years one of 93 million people named Wang in China has been planting trees for the purpose of preventing the desert from encroaching on Yinchuan. The Great Wall of Trees is 42-km and 10-km wide. For his efforts, Wang was rewarded with some time off to participate as a torch bearer for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

It reminds me of a story of three union guys, Wang, Wang and Wang. Their job was to plant trees. One dug a hole, another put the tree into the hole and the third filled the hole. One day only two showed up. Wang dug a hole and Wang filled it up. Wang dug a hole and Wang filled it up. Another Wang standing by asked, “How come all you do is dig a hole and fill it up?”

The hole-digging Wang replied, “just because Wang is sick, it doesn’t mean the two of us get the day off.”

42 kilometers long. Ring a bell. That’s the length of the modern day marathon. Sounds to me like this place might be a good location for the Olympic Marathon, no?

This kind of initiatives really get us rolling on the floor and wagging our tails.

The Brazilian Câmara dos Deputados is preparing a bill that will actually ask people to plant trees when they have fees to pay. The law is trying to recover the rainforest and offset the country’s carbon emissions.

We’re talking about fees concerning marriage, divorce, buying a new car or real estate transactions.

• getting married is 10 trees (additional 25 trees if you are divorcing later)
• buying a new car is 20 trees (light-duty van goes for 40 trees while a heavy duty is 60 trees)
• selling a house is 10 trees
• selling a business is 20 trees

The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics estimated that about 65 million trees would be planted per year under the proposed rules.

Apparently everything we do, harms the environment and though I do not agree with this concept, planting trees – no matter the reason – is a great solution to living a healthier life with a cleaner environment. Don’t you think?

[Source: Globo] (Image by Craig Jewell)

Scientists have found the (new) oldest tree in the world. It is a 16.4 feet tall spruce, found in Fulu Mountain in the Dalarna province of Sweden, that was carbon dated by Miami researchers to be 9,550 years old.

Under the crown they’ve also found four generations of spruce remains in the forms of cones and wood produced with the same genetic material, that date back 375, 5,660, 9,000 and 9,550 years.

Though spruce trees can create exact copies or clones of themselves multiplying with their root penetrating branches, so far scientists thought it wasn’t such a survivor.

Recent studies conducted in cooperation with the County Administrative Boards in Jämtland and Dalarna showed different and Leif Kullman, Professor of Physical Geography at Umea University, to declared “Our results have shown the complete opposite, that the spruce is one of the oldest known trees in the mountain range”.

The history behind this discovery, also revealed that the tree survived because of the generally cold and dry climate, few forest fires and very few humans. It also pointed out that the ice might have disappeared earlier than thought.

“My research indicates that spruces have spent winters in places west or southwest of Norway where the climate was not as harsh in order to later quickly spread northerly along the ice-free coastal strip. In some way they have also successfully found their way to the Swedish mountains,” Leif Kullman said.

Spruces are the species that can best give us insight about climate change.

Photo credits: Leif Kullman