Reminder! Get your orders in for Canvas Tree Art today for delivery by the holidays. $99 is all it takes to get there.
To see the entire canvas print collection go to https://www.eichingerfineart.com/collections/182747 and purchase online. Original art available at www.eichingerfineart.com
State of the Forests
In 2022, 140 countries pledged to tackle the environmental crisis through green recovery. This means improving biodiversity and reducing forest loss by 2030, seven years away. The three pathways to achieving these goals are; halting deforestation and keeping remaining forests, restoring degraded lands and expanding agroforestry, and sustainably using forests.
To keep the global temperature increase below 1.5 °C, we have to act now. To reduce the risk of future pandemics, and ensure food security for all; to eliminate poverty, frequency of violent storms, and rising oceans; to offer hope for the future, there is no time to wait.
Why be concerned? Can Trees and forests help with the recovery of sustainable economies in badly affected regions of the world?
Climate change has already increased economic and conflicts. It has degraded water and land use and created a health crisis, especially in rural areas. If the U.S. wants to stop immigrants from around the world from seeking asylum, we have to look to the source of their flight. If your family lost everything they had and was starving, wouldn’t you do all you could to find shelter in a climate more favorable to survival?
Population passed the 8 million person mark. We don’t have to look further than our country to see what happens when so many people consume irreplaceable fossil fuels, metals, and minerals. Increased production, consumption, and waste has led to a degrading way of life. We face a crisis we don’t tackle head-on. Nations of the world set priorities and goals without meeting them. The climate continues to warm.
There is a way forward if we look to sustainable resources. We have only to grasp their potential and hang on. By not doing so, deforestation and forest degradation will continue. Nearly 90 percent of deforestation between 2018 and 2018 was related to agriculture. Forests cover 31 percent of the world’s land surface, but the area is decreasing, especially in the tropics. Forests protect most of the earth’s terrestrial biodiversity. They are a buffer against invasive species and diseases that wipe out monoculture plantings and cause illness.
Millions of people get their food from wildlife and plants growing in forested areas, especially in rural and indigenous communities. Each clearcut puts thousands more at risk of starvation. They take to the roads, fill refugee camps, and come knocking on First World doors. They risk disease; the Ebola virus that killed over 11,000 people between 2014-2015 attaches two years after deforestation. The increase in dengue fever, malaria, and yellow fever are also associated with deforestation.
About one-third of global forest loss is fire-related. I too live in fear of the park by my home going up in flames to engulf my house. Though my house is only three miles from the center city, it is at risk. If the temperature keeps rising, the entire city is vulnerable. Most people reside in wood-framed homes.
There are ways to change the situation.
- Halting deforestation is a cost-effective action for slowing climate change.
- Have a more efficient, sustainable agrifood system that reduces the need for land.
- Reduce illegal wildlife trade by increasing surveillance.
- Public and private initiatives promoting sustainable land-use
- 7 percent of deforestation is due to oil-palm plantations that trade internationally. reduce its use and find alternatives.
- Increase financing in forest investment so climate targets can be met by 2050.
- Improve the regulatory rules to avoid the harmful impacts of deforestation.
- Develop coherent policies that are scalable.
References
Website. The State of the World’s Forests 2022. retrieved from https://www.fao.org/3/cb9360en/online/cb9360en.html
You Tube. A Tree Talk by Ewald Rametsteiner
I look forward to your comments below.
Art is always for sale. For information go to my website or contact me at marilynne@eichingerfineart.com
