When a Tree Falls It Makes More Than a Sound

Everyone has heard the philosophical thought experiment, ‘if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it still make a sound?’. It raises questions about reality, perception and observation. But, modern deforestation also has serious everyday repercussions. Cutting trees down creates many more disturbances than sound alone.

Why do we need trees?

Trees produce oxygen which we need to breathe.¹ Rainforests alone account for 28 per cent of the oxygen in the atmosphere.² Oxygen is released when plants create their food through photosynthesis. In the process, they also pull carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air.³ 

This is important because CO2 in the atmosphere is the primary long-lived cause of global warming. In fact, it is the main greenhouse gas that prevents heat from escaping Earth into space. Alarmingly, humans have increased the atmospheric concentration of CO2 by 47 per cent since the Industrial Revolution.⁴ The average temperature of our planet has risen by 1°C as a result.⁵

Trees provide an important counterbalance to this. They store some of the carbon they absorb from the air in their wood. Furthermore, a significant amount is also sequestered in the surrounding soil.⁶ This can keep it from the atmosphere for centuries. For instance, the remaining intact Amazon rainforest currently soaks up between five and 10 per cent of human CO2 emissions.⁷

Why is deforestation bad?

Cutting down trees may or may not make a sound if there is no one to hear it. Yet, it certainly releases the carbon stored in the trees. Whether the trees are burned or left to rot, deforestation inevitably creates carbon emissions.⁸ 

Deforestation caused 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions in the late 1990s.⁹ Today, the figure is lower, but it remains about 10 per cent of annual emissions.¹⁰ Therefore, if the practice continues at the current rate, we will have no forests left by the end of the century.¹¹ Moreover, we will also fail to limit global warming to 1°C, as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).¹²

Removing forests causes more greenhouse gases

Removing forests means that they can no longer absorb carbon dioxide. This is a serious problem, as atmospheric CO2 levels are at their highest point in at least 800,000 years.¹³ We need trees to remove this greenhouse gas directly from the air. 

Forests currently absorb and store 30 per cent of human-produced CO2 emissions.¹⁴ Yet we continue to deforest about 10 million hectares every year.¹⁵ This makes achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and limiting global warming to 1.5°C increasingly unlikely.¹⁶

Can stopping deforestation prevent climate change?

We can help to reduce the effects of climate change by protecting our forests. Furthermore, we can also plant more trees to absorb additional emissions. Yet, trees alone cannot stop global warming. 

If we are to prevent global warming exceeding 1.5°C, our global emissions must be 55 per cent lower by 2030 than in 2017.¹⁷ Therefore, we must massively curtail our consumption of fossil fuels as they release large quantities of CO2. Only by combining a transition away from coal, oil and gas with a huge decrease in deforestation can we save our planet. 

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