By Khandakar Badiuzzaman Bulbul

Trees are the environment's true friends and an essential part of protecting biodiversity. Their role in coping with natural disasters is undeniable. Trees are humanity's closest companions, and the two complement each other. A tree is an air filter: it helps keep the environment in balance by reducing carbon dioxide and also cuts noise pollution. Trees absorb excess heat and keep the environment clean.

Green trees take in carbon dioxide, which harms the environment, and supply oxygen, which living things need to survive. Trees are a refuge for birds, insects and other creatures. They are vital for bringing rain that keeps the earth's surface cool and habitable. Plants reduce pollution. Life needs an abundance of trees, and it is because of plants that the earth is still fit to live on.

Although trees are our friends, we are constantly destroying greenery and doing serious harm to the environment. Day after day we cut trees and clear forests. On the pretext of farmland or building infrastructure we fell trees and put the environment under threat. We torment trees by driving nails into them or boring holes in them. We must not forget that trees are living things too.

Trees protect us from natural disasters. If more trees could be grown in urban areas, city temperatures would fall to a bearable level. A single plant can meet the oxygen needs of three people for three months. A country needs forest on 25 per cent of its land; in Bangladesh it is limited compared with what is needed, and for lack of enough forest, global warming keeps rising.

The country faces desertification. The groundwater table is falling, so water is not available as needed and there are shortages of irrigation and drinking water. Carbon dioxide is increasing, and harmful chlorofluorocarbons, methane and nitrous oxide have multiplied. The ozone layer has been damaged and the sun's ultraviolet rays are reaching the earth. With acid rain and rising temperatures, Antarctic ice is melting and sea levels keep rising.

As green cover thins, the weather has changed too: excessive heat in summer, and sometimes excessive cold in winter. Adverse weather has made farming challenging. There is no alternative to planting trees to save the environment and nature. To make the world green, students of schools, colleges and universities need to come forward to plant trees.

Alongside tree fairs, tree planting itself could become a festival, and school, college and university authorities could play a part in organising it. There is no alternative to tree planting to cope with the adverse effects of climate change and keep pace with the needs of the population. Everyone, in government, in the private sector or individually, should come forward to plant trees. There is no alternative to trees in making the earth liveable.

The writer is a student at Ananda Mohan College, Mymensingh.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.