Civilization's Future

Trees spread across Earth’s surface wherever they could find food. Bounded by arctic tundra and desert dryness, they’ve made a protective canopy for people and animals alike. For four hundred million years they’ve been a special link in the ecosystem. They capture energy from the Sun, absorb molecules from the land and air, and, grow mightily. Their death allows other trees to grow as well as to provide other creatures the use of their special attributes; whether nesting for owls or lumber for people.

Enough trees together make for a forest. Forests were the norm; now their presence fits a carefully crafted human need. Just like crop land, a forest area can be harvested. Lumber companies clear or selectively cut to take optimum trees to their mill. Smart harvesters think about the future and replant. Interestingly enough in Canada in 2005 about 430 thousand hectares were planted or seeded while nearly 19 000 thousand hectares were lost, though most to other than harvesting.

For the lumber industry, a tree can mature in 70 years. Pulp and paper needs get satisfied by hybrids in as little as 25 years. Trees can grow for hundreds of years if they have the opportunity. But with harvesters repeatedly clearing the land, forests become denuded of other life just as crop land exists only for people. A vibrant lumber industry can mean the death of an ecosystem.

In Canada we remove nearly 100 million cubic metres of round wood annually. Assume this is all Spruce with a density of 450 kg/cu.m. and an energy content of 15e6J/kg. Then annually, we remove over 2e17 Joules of energy from the forest’s ecosystem.

Turning forests into cropland obviates their role as an integral part of the ecosystem. Cutting and hauling away the lumber takes away the stores of energy and the constituent material. Then, just as with cropland, the soil depletes. A sustainable lumber industry must account for the energy flow. A sustainable ecosystem, of whichever type we choose or end up with, must also abide by the energy constraints we impose.

Treating forests as a renewable resource may be short term wishful thinking. Can the land and, equally as important, the ecosystem survive the constant energy extraction we inflict? If we were tree herders like the Ents, how should we address this challenge?

1. Canada’s Forests
2. Area
3. Density

Washington state;

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This entry was posted on Saturday, October 20th, 2007 at 10:59 pm and is filed under Energy Resource. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.