If trees produce the air we breath, then why are we cutting them down? There IS a thing called recycling.?

Question

Please answer this question with good fact; I dont want an anwer from a highschool geek. Please and thankyou!

Answer 1

Why are we cutting them down? Because we are greedy and self serving humans, we want more land to develop our cities, we want to make money producing paper products and wood for building et cetera. By the time the trees are gone, we'll be dead and then it wont be OUR problem, will it?

Answer 2

Cutting down trees does not have to be a bad thing as long as it is done sustainably. That means that we don't cut them down any faster than we can replace them by growing new ones. In a few areas that is being done. Unfortunately many forestry companies are publicly owned and so they need to generate profit growth every single quarter and that can lead to very harmful cutting practices. Making a buck becomes more important to management than making sure the company will have trees to cut in the future.

Here in Northern California that has happened over the last 30 years or so and as a consequence the is very little forestry industry any more because the fools cut down nearly ALL the trees. The companies often try to claim it is because of over-regulation but actually the exact opposite is true. They were allowed to cut whatever they wanted to and so many chose to cut everything and now there simply are not many trees left.

There are exceptions like Big Trees Lumber, which practices very responsible sustainable harvest. Hopefully sustainable practices will become the norm instead of the exception.

Answer 3

Trees are not the source of the air we breathe. That idea is just simple minded nonsense. The air is in a complex balance with all life on the planet, and phytoplankton is probably more important than trees in that balance.

Most of the tree cutting in the US is balanced by tree planting, because the timber industry does not want to cut itself out of business. Environmentalists complain at the loss of virgin or old growth forest, but they will admit that there are in fact more trees in the US today than there were 100 years ago. But they will also complain that it is only because of tree farms which are not proper wildlife habitat. So the whole tree cutting thing just isn't about the air we breathe, it is about wildlife habitat, biodiversity and soil erosion.

Another concern is tropical rain forest destruction. In that case, the reason for cutting the trees is usually slash and burn agriculture. Here again, the air is not the main concern. It is soil erosion, habitat destruction and biodiversity loss that are the main concerns.

Answer 4

Many trees that are used for production of paper are planted just for that purpose. In the United States and Canada, companies "farm" trees in a similar manner to that which we use for corn, wheat, and other crops- just that it takes decades before they can be harvested. These companies think ahead to determine potential demand.
However, trees are still cut down from "virgin" forest as they offer a higher profit potential when it comes to lumber. It is difficult to produce large timbers in a sustainable manner; as a result, some manufacturers have come up with solutions involving gluing smaller pieces of wood together (glue-lam, for "glue laminate") to produce larger beams from smaller trees.
Trees will continue to grow when they are harvested in a sustainable manner; it does not benefit a company to cut down all the trees, although some "clear-cut" operations are very nasty to the environment. To make things worse, some of these operations are on federal land- even federal forests! These were originally set aside FOR consumption, but we have grown accustomed to being able to visit these forests for camping, hiking, etc., even though they were created for their timber.
Overall, the United States and Canada probably have MORE trees than when Columbus landed in the New World. Part of this is good management practices, but part of it is that we've spent too much time controlling wildfires- and now the fires grow out of control. Instead of a healthy, sparse forest with 20-40 trees per acre, some forests in Northern Arizona have 800+. As a result, there is not enough water for all the trees when it rains, and the trees slowly dry out- and burn explosively when fires happen. Taking out the smaller trees would benefit ALL the trees, but this is not economical for the timber company; they don't want the 4" trees, they want the trees that are 2' in diameter.

Answer 5

Sorry I don't have an exact figure off-hand, but the majority of the oxygen recycled into our atmosphere is not by trees, but by plant life in the top layer (photic zone) of the ocean. And those seem to be doing just fine.

A lot of trees are cut down to make room for farming in South America. So when crops are planted they make up for the photosynthesis that the trees aren't doing anymore.

Answer 6

Hey, I may be long-graduated from high school, but I know some high school geeks who can give you very good answers.

In fact, most of them would probably point out that your question makes little sense. The concept of recycling includes replanting in the place of felled trees, which means we can (technically) cut down as many we we want, as long as we don't do it so quickly that the timber stops being a renewable resource.

Answer 7

We cut down trees to make a place for our giant new impressive house. We also use the wood to build the house and furnish it. Later, we tear out the nice wood cabinets because they look shabby compared to the neighbors house and throw them out and buy more new cabinets. There is limited demand for recycled goods, so people don't recycle as much as they could, nor do they buy stuff made from recycled paper when given the choice (oh, charmin is cheaper and feels so soft on my...)

Answer 8

Yes there is recycling but in alot of cases, it costs more to recycle than to gorw new trees. Tree farms exist for the sole purpose of producing paper.

Answer 9

because you just can't make lumber out of recycled paper. If you don't want any more trees cut down, you have to stop people building anything. and good luck with that.

Answer 10

Most of the air we breath comes from the ocean.