Author: naturafutura

In this last text, of a series of twelve, we are going to talk about how people feel. Life experience here on Earth is individual, and the perception of what is good or pleasant for some people may not be the same for others.

Some people feel good in front of a computer screen. They like shopping malls, electronics stores, and use to buy and use all kind of technological gizmos as soon as they are released in the market. At home, have no pets nor plants or flowers in vessels and consider this absolutely normal.

Others live surrounded by all kinds of pets, cultivate various plants even inside apartments and prefer to visit parks or green areas whenever possible. They also use the latest technology, but at second instance. To be in touch with nature comes in first place for them.

Both behaviors are socially accepted, and when someone says: “I don’t like trees”, we say that this is a matter of choice and that “there is nothing wrong with that”. This attitude may lead someone to put down a tree, just to be exempted to take care of it. Someone could have asked: why be forced to take care of something that you don’t like?

It is an absurdity “to force” a person to like something or someone. It remains to show that respect attitudes towards Nature and environment are necessary for the survival of the human species, in the long run. Trees provide us with oxygen to breathe, and the food that keep us alive comes from plants and animals that we cultivate or process.

This means it is necessary to create an awareness that human beings are part of Nature and depend on Nature to survive !

It is amazing how human beings can find excuses for everything. Case in point is a person who puts down a magnificent tree in an urban lot, stating that it was old.

In a forest, old trees fall and may cause damage to other trees and animals below them. In the cities, happens the same. It is not rare to see a fallen tree in an avenue, for example. This could happen in the middle of the night, even in the absence of winds or rain, and hurt no one. It is a matter of chance.

Urban planning, including the choice of appropriate trees species and a systematic control of existing trees are means to minimize the occurrence of a tree fall due to its age. This is feasible and can be done by municipal authorities or non-governmental organizations (NGO).

The purpose of this text, however, is to point out the habit of stating lame excuses to cut a tree. A person is paid to put down a tree, so the owner of the lot gets rid of a “inconvenience”, which he or she considers to be an obstacle to the sale of the property. Any excuse could have been used.

When a tree gets in fact “old”, it is acceptable putting it down if it becomes a threat, even in a private lot. No one is questioning the physical safety issue. But anyone who cares about Nature and is aware of the benefits brought by an OPU (Oxygen Producing Unit), would immediately have planted a young tree to replace the old one.

Among the many alleged reasons to put down a tree, this is perhaps the most bizarre one. It is a human determination; it just disregards the right to existence of the tree itself. Nobody asks to be born, neither choses a place of birth nor a social class. This is true also for trees.

There are many examples of non-native trees in Brazil. The avocado tree is native to Mexico. Mango tree comes from India. The apple tree has its origin in Central Asia. The Christmas Pine-Tree was brought to Brazil from conifer forests in the northern hemisphere. And so it goes…

In Nature, the dispersion of species may occur in several ways. Seeds are spread by the wind. Rivers and seas transport plants and animals from one place to the other. And due to their self-motion, animals carry with them diverse species to other localities.

We, human beings, besides having this self-motion, have also fascination, curiosity and economical drive acting on us. This is how, in a time of slight or non-existing ecological awareness, European settlers intensified the introduction of species coming from other regions of the planet to America.

To carry a species to a new locality sometimes generate ominous or undesired consequences. Case in point is the Nile Perch in Lake Victoria, in Africa, or the arrival of the first rabbits in Australia. But these issues not always occur, and new species adapt favorably to environments where they were brought to.

It would be insane to repatriate all species in this world to their original habitats. Nature is a mutant process and adaptation of species belongs to it. The presence of non-native species in a biome can be rationally controlled in order to avoid unbalance; however its sheer decimation contradicts Nature’s supreme principle, which is the preservation of life.

Once more we talk about urban planning. Sidewalks are lanes where pedestrians walk. These lanes’ paving is expected not to be cracked, uneven, or slippery. They should not have any obstacle that might hinder the passage or put people’s safety at risk.

This is the ideal picture for a sidewalk. There are manuals and specific norms for sidewalks, which vary from city to city around the world. Not always these rules are followed, and it is a common thing in Brazil to find electricity poles placed in the middle of sidewalks, forcing pedestrians to step down to the street.

Hardly ever electricity poles are removed, due to their size and weight. But what if the obstacle is a tree? They may be high as electricity poles and may have grown right in the middle of a sidewalk, too. Once again, they will have no right to defense, if someone just wants to cut them down. And by removing a tree from an urban sidewalk, we will have one less OPU (Oxygen Producing Unit) in the city. Sad reality.

A solution meant to solve this problem is urban planning, focused on each city block, on every inch of a sidewalk. To make this proposal real, it is enough to say that the involvement of sidewalks users, especially dwellers and estate owners of the city block, is essential.

Before planting trees on sidewalks, the choice of the appropriate species is crucial. Some trees have roots that spread above the ground and may hinder the flow of pedestrians. Another important item is the distance from the corners (desirable 9ft 10in), since bulky branches, as they grow, may interfere in the traffic of vehicles while turning the corner.

From all reasons stated in this series, in order to put down a tree, this one is the most perfidious. Face to face are two realities: “respect for nature” against “attachment to money”. Moral and ethics, the human soul itself, and the conflict between greed and altruism may be discussed here. But let us go to the facts first:

At the municipalities’ level:

There is a great amount of urban lots without trees in brazilian cities. These same cities miss Oxygen Producing Units (the trees), with their benefits: more fresh air and more thermal stability.

In the cities, there are also lots with few sparse trees. Sometimes these trees are cut down by the landowners under the excuse of “hindering the sale process”. And in most cases, the municipalities do not have any control, neither on planting trees, nor on putting them down.

At the citizen’s level:

Around a vacant lot, with sparse trees, neighbors are benefited from the shadow cast by one of them. Over the years they get used to the stable temperature it helped to keep. Suddenly they see the lot being sold and the tree put down without any convincing reason. Nothing will be constructed. The undeclared reason was the “hassle to keep a tree” and the “increase in value of the real estate”.

It is hard to convince some individuals that social well-being and environment conservation should be above immediate, money motivated interests. In order to change this sad situation, the making of laws, and their application, are necessary. To depend on the consciousness and good will of those who are solely focused on financial gains, would rarely lead to results.