Trees
help us breathe and provide a home for quite a few diverse kinds of
animals and insects. They are the largest and longest living organisms
on earth. To grow tall the tree has become a miracle of engineering and a
complex chemical factory. It is able to take water and salts out of the
earth and lift them up to the leaves, sometimes over 400 ft above. By
means of photosynthesis the leaves combine the water and salts with
carbon dioxide from the air to produce the nutrients which feed the
tree. In this process, as well as wood, trees create many chemicals,
seeds and fruit of great utility to man. Also, trees provide refreshing
shade.
Apart from the above, trees are effectively the lungs of
the environment. They take much of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
and release oxygen via photosynthesis. They also store carbon in their
roots, trunk, branches and leaves. Carbon makes up 50% of the weight of
the wood in a tree. Therefore, the greenhouse gas load is reduced and
effects of global warming are also brought down. Further dead trees that
get buried in soil eventually provide fossil fuels like coal, gasoline
products, etc. Among all, trees have an indisputable role in bringing
rain to earth. Moreover, they provide a cover over the top surface of
earth preventing excessive heating up by solar rays.
Trees
provide the human species with a constant supply of oxygen. This oxygen,
which humans in turn utilize for survival, is produced through trees as
they intake various amounts of carbon dioxide, which humans exhale.