How trees talk to each other – Ted Talk, Suzanne Simard Why I love vultures – Ted Talk, Munir Virani
1) How did the information presented in the talks above affect how you think about nature?
I read a book recently for the same class called “What a Plant Knows” written by Daniel Chamovitz. This book describes what Suzanne Simard discussed in her speech about how plants communicate through a variety of methods. This communication provides trees with more human characteristics that make me sad to see the amount of destruction that occurs in forests. I can agree with selective cutting and replanting, but these processes need to be conducted smartly to preserve the natural habitats that the trees provide and to conserve the tree species themselves. Having the new knowledge that trees communicate and that the mother trees recognize their own, providing them with resources the same way that a human mother would provide their own. This makes me want to stand up to those that cut down forests and destroy ecosystems and implement a system of some kind that would allow for timber harvesting in a more concise and environmentally friendly manner
2)What aspects of nature and biodiversity do you feel are most important to protect? How can you take action to protect this aspect?
The practice of clear-cutting trees is something that is huge in this world. I would never ridicule the importance of wood supplies, as timber is significant for humankind: however, the destruction of forests is what I feel are the most important to protect! Destroying forests can completely wipe out the ecosystems that thrives in their shadows, either causing species to migrate or die off. Another aspect of nature that is just as important to me after recent discussions is ocean trash dumping. Oceans cover an even larger area of Earth than land does and provides homes to a massive number of marine life. Trash covering the oceans is slowly making these ecosystems suffer and killing individuals.
I believe in years to come I could find the resources to provide more hands-on protection to these areas. But currently, spreading knowledge to local communities and making others in my city more aware of these growing problems would be the best place to start. I also feel like the best areas to utilize would be social media and websites such as YouTube. Social Media is massive in today’s society and can allow for knowledge to be spread to the whole world and not just the local community. All it would take is for myself to start a small action that could act as a pebble in an avalanche to cause others around the world by raising money or providing their own time and efforts. I can achieve this through social media.
A good example of this is 4Ocean. I recently learnt about them through Instagram, that they clean the oceans through the purchase of a bracelet. This group provides me with the motivation to do something similar but with saving forests. An example of planting trees that have been taken down is the clothing brand 10 Tree, which I have brought many clothing items for and signed up to have over one hundred trees planted.
Image by Ten Tree
Image by 4Ocean