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Plants had and still have a key role in the history of life on Earth. Through the process of photosynthesis, green vegetation converts carbon dioxide and light energy into nutrients and oxygen, which is essential for all living organisms.
Nowadays, human activities have a great impact on the presence of trees and plants. The greater devastation takes place in forests and woodlands, where humans cut trees to make commercial use of wood and convert forests and woodlands into agricultural land to feed growing numbers of people and earn money.
The accelerating destruction of the rainforests that form a precious cooling band around the Earth's equator, is now recognized as one of the main causes of climate change. The rampant slashing and burning of tropical forests is second only to the energy sector as a source of greenhouse gases according to a report published by the Oxford-based Global Canopy Programme (GCP).
The GCP's report concludes: “If we lose forests, we lose the fight against climate change.
*Published in the PSC Newsletter, 1st School Semester 2011/12 issue.