Trees!🌲

500 trees a second - that's how many trees are cut down (a study from 2020 shows). It's the equivalent of 30,000 a minute, 1.8 million an hour, 43 million a day, to come to an overall 15 billion in a year. All the positive effects they have on people's lives and the entire world, and we cut them down. Crazy.

Yes, they are useful for energy resources because they can be carbon neutral.  But it's only carbon neutral if you replant the trees, because it is estimated that 15-20% of greenhouse gas emissions are produced by deforestation.  This is because trees emit the carbon dioxide they store when they are cut down (see below) - as long as a tree lives, the CO2 it stores stay safely within it.  

There are so many advantages to having trees in our lives, whether that be social, environmental or economic. 

• Socially, there are scientific studies that show that trees have a positive effect on mental health - they can lower stress levels and make people happier.
• Environmentally, they take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen during photosynthesis and so are one of the main factors in lowering man-made greenhouse gasses.

I'd definitely recommend reading The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohllben to learn about trees because he explains the lives of trees so well. 

I got all of this from the video: What if Everyone in the World Planted a Tree? which, as the name says, also gives the impact it would make if everyone planted a tree. It's only three minutes, I'd recommend reading it for even more information.

I'm doing a bit more research on this, as there are some other viewpoints on planting trees that are also important to think about.  Watch out for a future blog! 

Thank you so much for reading!! See you in two weeks.

Violet

         xxx

World Ocean Day!🌊

On Wednesday 8th June 2022, last Wednesday, was World Ocean Day, where we celebrated the beautiful blue part of our planet and pledged for what we can do to help. 

The action we want to take is to protect at least 30% of the oceans, waters and lands by 2030 (30x30), because certain parts of our planet are huge sources of biodiversity, and they're being destroyed right in front of our eyes, in the space of a lifetime! Over 90 countries have committed to this action, but there are still more who could help. Right now, less than 17% of land is protected, and less than 8% of the ocean worldwide is protected too. All you have to do to help is sign the letter to the nation's leaders who haven't committed to the 30x30 goal (click here to see the World Ocean Day website). On their website, they even have a whole part dedicated to youths, how there's even a Youth Advisory Council (created in 2016) and there are currently members in 40 countries. 

Some things that you may or may not have heard of that you can do to help the oceans are:

• Pick up any rubbish you find when you're at the beach. When I go to the beach, there are these fun sand dunes but you are able to see some but of plastic anywhere you look.
• Eat less fish. I was pescatarian for around 5 years, and then I turned vegetarian September 2021. The overfishing that takes place is endangering all the marine animals because we are taking other animals' sources of food.
• Avoid microplastics. These tiny plastics poison the oceans, and they're in so many of the products we use.

Thank you so much for reading. See you on the next post!

Violet

         xxx