Now there's an interesting theory!
We have own fair share of bushfires right here in Gippsland,
(Black Saturday 2009, Wikipedia), as every resident knows.
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| 2013 Lake Glenmaggie/Heyfield/Seaton, (J Gwyther) |
Right now, California is experiencing some
devastating wildfires (CNN). Spain, France, Indonesia, Greece and a number of
other countries are experiencing an increasing frequency of wildfires and,
globally, much research is being conducted on how to reduce the risk of
valuable and beautiful natural landscapes 'going up in smoke'.
Removing trees for timber production, agricultural
practices, urban development, etc, can interfere dramatically with the ecology
of a region. History tells us that the Middle East, now mostly a dry and arid
place, was once verdant and fertile.
Forests play a vital role in the global water cycle. Through
evaporation and transpiration, trees return moisture to the atmosphere where it
condenses into clouds and eventually falls as rain.
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| Water Cycle - ecohustler.co.uk |
Whilst we do have our own 20 million trees program, (nrm.gov.au),
it could be thought of as puny beside the 66 million trees planted in India,
(in 12 hours!), (independent.co.uk), and the Great Green Wall of China, 66 billion trees
since 1978, with the aim of planting 100 billion, (theplaidzebra).
Despite all the evidence pointing to the negative effects of
land clearing, it still proceeds almost unabated right here in Australia, (The Guardian)!
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| Land clearing in Queensland - abc.net.au |
Apart from storing vast amounts of carbon dioxide, forests
act as a cooling system for the earth and help stabilize the climate.
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| Mt Worth State Park |
More forest might mean less bushfires!?
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