How a thermo-cup, an electronic ticket, and a flea market reduce deforestation.

Sort and recycle paper

To get a ton of paper pulp, which will make office paper, you need 4 tons of wood. Depending on natural and production conditions, this figure is equal to several felled trees. The production of recycled paper requires half as much raw material. That is, 1 ton of paper pulp requires only 2 tons of waste paper.

Avoid unnecessary printing

If you are already printing something, make sure that it is really necessary, and even better – that it will be used by several people, more than once. Electronic tickets instead of paper, printing on drafts, electronic versions of publications instead of paper – all this makes it possible to significantly reduce the use of paper.

In the world, more than half of paper products are made from recycled paper or cardboard. It can be packaging, toilet paper – it is easy to identify by the appropriate labeling on the package, and if it is not bleached – by the gray color.

Advertising flyers, which are distributed near the subway, live exactly 30 seconds: from the moment they are distributed, to the nearest landfill, where they will not be recycled.

However, this is not the only way to advertise your services or products. By giving up flyers, you encourage advertising customers to use environmentally friendly marketing tools. The same applies to other types of paper advertising products.

HOW: Print on both sides. Pay attention to the structure: a minimum of free space on the paper and slightly reduced margins of the document help to save a lot of paper. Reducing the margins by half can save more than 5% paper.

Discard paper – business cards, notes, or conferences can be downloaded to your phone or other digital media.

Use a thermo-cup instead of paper cups

Paper cups are mostly used only once. To prevent them from getting wet, they are covered with a special polystyrene film, so they can be processed only in special plants, and they are not in every country. In Britain, where such plants operate, seven million paper cups are used per day and 1% of them are recycled.

In some countries, due to food safety standards, a paper cup cannot contain more than 10% of processed raw materials, and therefore requires new wood raw materials for production.

It is estimated that the abandonment of paper cups by the staff of the office, which employs about 50 people, will save more than one tree a year.

HOW: Use reusable utensils at home and in the office.

Exchange things, not buy new ones

Old furniture, books that you no longer use, do not have to go to the dump. There are many ways to give such things a “second life”. The production of new things directly affects deforestation, and their reuse is an important contribution to reducing volumes. This principle works in the opposite direction – if possible, use used things, not buy new ones.

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More than 15 thousand scientists from 184 countries signed the document Prevention of Mankind, which describes the main threats to the existence of all living things on the planet, says the journal BioScience.

This document became the second, the first was signed 25 years ago. During this time, as scientists say, some environmental problems have only become more serious.

People and nature are moving towards collision with each other

An active group of environmentalists from the Union of Concerned Scientists and about 1,7 thousand independent scientists, including most Nobel laureates, in 1992 issued the first warning to World Scientists Warning to Humanity.

The initiator of the document, which begins with the words “People and nature are moving towards collision with each other,” became the founder of the Union and Nobel Prize winner in physics Henry Way Kendall.

Concerned about the problems of global climate change, scientists described in it the main threats that existed at that time for the environment, and steps that should be taken to reduce the negative impact of anthropogenic factors on global climate change.

Scientists predicted that a person would destroy life on Earth, because of its activities, ozone holes are formed, water and air are contaminated, forests are cut down, soil is depleted, and so on.

Preventing calls to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce the use of fossil fuels, stop cutting down forests.

“If we do not take measures, many of our actions will put the future that we wish for humans, animals and plants, threaten and so change the planet that we will not be able to lead a customary life on it,” the scientists wrote in 1992.

For a quarter of a century it only got worse
The new Warning contains disappointing results from the first publication 25 years ago. The authors considered nine major threats to the existence of all living things that appeared as a result of human activity.

In preparing the publication, scientists used data from national climate organizations that publish annual reports on temperature measurements and greenhouse gas emissions.

Change in key indicators over the past 25 years: a) emission of substances that deplete the ozone layer; (b) Fresh water per capita; (c) The amount of fish caught; d) the number of dead zones in the ocean; (e) Forest area; f) the number of species of vertebrates; (g) Carbon dioxide emissions; h) temperature increase; i) the total population of the Earth and the number of ruminants

The main problem is global climate change. Since 1992, the average temperature has increased by more than half a degree Celsius, and the annual carbon dioxide emissions have increased by 62 percent. The amount of fresh water available per person decreased by 26 percent.

Also, scientists noted a decrease in forest areas – about 120 million hectares were cut down, and the number of fish in reservoirs decreased. In the oceans, the volume of dead zones increased, in which the oxygen content became lower than necessary for the existence of marine creatures.

At the same time, the world population grew by 35 percent or two billion over 25 years, and populations of many species of mammals, reptiles, fish decreased by 30 percent.

“Mankind has become the cause of the sixth in the last half a billion years of mass extinction of animals and catastrophic loss of biodiversity, it will soon be too late to evade our trajectory of falling,” the document says.

However, the scientists noted some progress in increasing the share of renewable energy sources and reducing the release of substances (the gradual phase-out of chlorofluorocarbons) that destroy the ozone layer, thereby reducing holes.

Scientists offer a number of ways to solve the problem, including the creation of nature reserves, reducing the amount of food waste, introducing more environmentally friendly technologies, changing consumption patterns through economic incentives.

To develop new methods for improving climate, documentation, and assessing the current climate situation on Earth, an active group of scientists created a new organization, the Alliance of World Scientists.

The state of the climate on Earth at the moment, its susceptibility to anthropogenic influence and trends in its change are also discussed in the framework of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is being held in Bonn.

One of the consequences of anthropogenic impact on the Earth’s climate is the reduction in the number of animal species. Thus, it is human intervention that can lead to the complete extinction of northern smooth whales over a hundred years.

Individual scientists even argue that the current rate of increase in the carbon content in ocean water can trigger a massive extinction of marine animals as early as 2100. At the same time, the largest and smallest animals are in the zone of maximum risk.

The most ambitious international agreement
In 2015, 197 countries signed the Paris Climate Agreement, which aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty.

If the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere rises by about two degrees, then, scientists say, this can lead to dangerous and unpredictable climate changes – unprecedented floods, droughts and forest fires. And this in turn will trigger a new global wave of migration.

The agreement provides:
– retention of global average temperature increase;

– limiting greenhouse gas emissions to a level where they will be fully absorbed by plants and oceans, until the end of this century;

– Countries themselves determine the contribution to the achievement of the goal and review them every five years;

– developed countries have some financial obligations – they should help other states in the fight against climate change.

The countries that signed the agreement, themselves determine the contribution to the achievement of the goal and review them every five years.

Developed countries have some financial obligations – they must help other states in the fight against climate change.

The Paris agreement is criticized for the lack of sanctions if the signatories fail to reach their goals or for lack of it.

Critics also point out that the phrase “fossil fuel” is not mentioned in the text of the agreement.

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• mining of minerals;
• use of vehicles;
• emission of industrial wastes;
• burning of energy sources;
• deforestation, etc.

All these actions were not considered detrimental for the time being. Already much later, everyone realized that the development of industry adversely affects the health of people and animals, and also pollutes the environment. After that independent experts together with scientists have proved, that pollution of water, air and soil bears harm to all living beings. Since then, the US has adopted a “green” economy program.

Deforestation

The problem of deforestation is one of the most acute on the planet. Its impact on the environment is difficult to overestimate. No wonder the trees are called the lungs of the Earth. They generally constitute a single ecosystem that affects the life of various species of flora, fauna, soil, atmosphere, water regime. Many people do not even guess what disaster a deforestation will bring, if not stop it.

The problem of deforestation

At the moment, the problem of cutting down trees is relevant for all the continents of the earth, but this problem is most acute in the countries of Western Europe, South America, and Asia. Intensive destruction of forests leads to the problem of deforestation. The territory, freed from trees, turns into a poor landscape, becomes unsuitable for life.

To understand how close the disaster, you should pay attention to a number of facts:

• more than half of the world’s tropical forests have already been destroyed, and a centurion will be needed to restore them;
• now only 30% of the land is occupied by forests;
• Regular tree cutting leads to an increase in the atmosphere of carbon monoxide by 6-12%;
• every minute the territory of the forest disappears, which in size is equal to several football fields.

Reasons for deforestation

Among the common causes of deforestation is the following:

• wood has a high value as a building material and raw materials for paper, cardboard, the manufacture of household items;
• often destroy forests for the expansion of new agricultural land;
  for laying roads and roads
• In addition, a large number of trees suffer from forest fires, which are constantly due to improper handling of fire. They also happen during the drought season.

Illegal deforestation
Quite often trees are cut down illegally. In many countries of the world there are not enough institutions and people who can control the process of deforestation. In turn, entrepreneurs of this sphere sometimes make violations, increasing the amount of deforestation annually. It is also believed that the wood shows up on the market, supplied by poachers, who do not have permission to operate. There is an opinion that the introduction of a high duty on timber would significantly reduce the sale of timber abroad, and, accordingly, would reduce the number of felled trees.

Effects of deforestation
The main result of deforestation is a decrease in the forest area, which has a lot of consequences:

• climate change;
• environmental pollution;
• ecosystem change;
• destruction of a large number of plants;
• animals are forced to leave habitual habitats;
• deterioration of the atmosphere;
• deterioration of the water cycle in nature;
• the destruction of soil, which will lead to soil erosion;
• the emergence of environmental refugees.
• Permission for deforestation

Companies that deal with cutting down trees must obtain a special permit for this activity. To do this, you need to submit an application, a plan of the area where the cutting is carried out, a description of the types of trees that will be felled, and a number of papers for coordination with various services. In general, it is difficult to obtain such permission. However, this does not completely exclude the illegality of deforestation. It is recommended to tighten this procedure, while it is still possible to save the forests on the planet.

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