The Immense, but Often Forgotten Value of a Tree

We often like to think of ourselves as standing at the apex of the world, yet we forget what the foundation beneath our feet is made of. Without the living green around us, there would be nothing left to eat, breathe, or to admire. So let us once again be reminded to appreciate the immense value of treelife. Before it is too late.

A Poem of Witness

For centuries I've been watching over this land.

I've witnessed it empty.

I've witnessed my siblings sprout up beside me.

I’ve witnessed love hiding from the rays in the shade I create,

and I’ve proudly shielded whatever life I could from both rain and hail.

But now, I am barely able to shield myself.
This land, that was once blossoming, as if the air itself were alive, seems to be returning to the wasteland it once was.

I can no longer breathe within these four walls of fence,

and the sound of laughter and bird chirps seems but a distant memory.

It seems my time of departure is near,

but I fear my siblings won’t be far after me.

Opinion Piece

Isn't our Earth, like, really amazing if you really think about it? From rainbow-colored skyscrapers that you can't even see the top of, to the marine world where life is able to exist in places we can't even see nor reach. From buildings where its history reaches further than anyone can remember, to forests containing millions of different shades of green. I'm sure anyone can find beauty anywhere, thus is the beauty of the diversity of our world. But who are the ones who make this world a possible home?

Let's not be naive. We've accomplished many things during our time on Earth, but would we compare the role of plant life and humans, we are merely a guest in this world. And our host is in danger.

Our enemy is climate change. Not the people who are spreading information about it just because you might be too uninterested or bored to listen. So here I am to remind you again, that climate change is causing rising temperatures and natural disasters that threaten plant survival across ecosystems. This does not apply to one or two minor forests in some faraway country, but were close to wiping out all collective species of ancient woodland in the United Kingdom just a few years ago, according to Drones join battle against eight-toothed beetle threatening forests published by Esme Stallard and Justin Rowlatt through BBC News.

It's not just about trees falling due to tornadoes, but about stressed trees being susceptible to other threats due to reduced natural defences. Examples of such threats could be anything from invasive bugs to extreme rainfall, leaving the trees in waterlogged conditions and unable to pick up necessary nutrients for survival. This makes rising temperatures a triple threat to tree survival, amplification of atmospheric drought, and direct effects of heat stress, according to Global field observations of tree die-off reveal hotter-drought fingerprint for Earth's forests published April 5th 2022 by William M. Hammond, assistant Professor of plant ecophysiology at the University of Florida. The same logic that applies to the fact that we can't afford to lose our home applies to the fact that we can't afford to lose our plant life, because, if we lose our plant life, we lose our Earth.

Let's go back to the basics. Most of us know that all food chains share a common green base, meaning it is the bane of the existence of all of us. The fact that we're at the top only indicates how dependent we are of the ones beneath us. If plant life dies out, the lack of oxygen wouldn't even be our biggest issue, as we'd starve to death long before that. At that point, it doesn't matter how much money you have, how much power you have, or how fancy a kitchen you have, if there isn't any food you can make inside of it.

Let's just all realize that, in front of losing our Earth, our world, everything we've ever known, we are all the same. It's not a question of equality, but the truth in the most objective way possible. No matter what you've been able to obtain in your life, we are all the same in front of death.

So please, don't let the cause of our forever non-returnable destruction be a lack of action. Act for those who can't. Act for those who wish they could. Act for those who will come after us, so they will get the chance to see the same beauty we once did, and maybe, hopefully, even greater. Act.

Jingjia Qian