Chopped in Half

It’s an astonishing number. The Earth is home to 3 trillion trees. However, when you learn that number is half the amount that covered the globe when human civilization arose, your stomach turns with guilt. 

It’s not all doom and gloom, although the number is decreasing rather than growing, it still is eight times higher than was thought a decade ago.  Shockingly, we lose 15 billion trees a year to toilet paper.

Toilet paper is a product that was first invented in 1857 and was only widely used after World War Two once it was guaranteed to be splinter-free in 1935. What’s more, although we chop down 15 billion trees a year to make toilet paper, only 20-25% of the population use it. 

Protecting the planet

We need to take the news that we have halved the world’s population of trees as a warning flag to take positive steps towards protecting the planet now. 

That is why EcoChoice is a sustainable timber supplier and we are always keen to promote other ways we can help to protect the planet. If you are ready to take a bold step in moving away from using toilet paper, then having a bidet installed or even a high-tech Japanese toilet is one excellent way to do your bit to save the planet. Failing that you can always go for FSC? certified recycled loo rolls.

Increasing the tree population

Without the world’s forests, the planet would be a difficult place. Amongst other things, we rely on them for, “their ability to foster biodiversity, store carbon, preserve water quality, and perform other ecosystem services”. 

This is why companies like Plant-for-the-Planet are concentrating on increasing the world’s population of trees. They took over the United Nations’s Billion Tree Campaign. The campaign planted 12 billion trees in 193 countries in its first five years to help reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. 

Human impact is agreed to be the leading cause of a significant loss in the global tree population. It is said that humans are responsible for the loss of 15 billion trees a year, so even with 5 billion trees being planted or sprouting annually, there is a net loss of 10 billion trees a year leading to the 46% drop in the world’s population of trees since the beginning of human civilisation. 

The human impact of reducing the number of trees and the ecological consequences that come with it affects both our climate and human health. Climate change has even been linked to the catastrophic coronavirus crisis that the world is also now facing. 

Without taking positive steps towards protecting the planet now in this “climate ‘crisis moment’”, we are facing a bleak future. If the globe’s climate increases by anything above 1.5C, then this will see coastal flooding, heatwaves, and damage to coral reefs. The evidence of global warming is clear to see in Australia and the US this year with their forest fires. 

This is why it is so important that 2020 is a year that sees a halt to humans damaging ecosystems and instead sees humanity nurturing and protecting them. 

Protecting the planet has always been EcoChoice’s paramount concern, which is why we are a sustainable timber merchant. 

To find out more about what we do, call us on 0345 638 1340.