Cutting down trees can certainly be beneficial to us in many ways, but there are also quite a few cons to this as well. As already mentioned, these trees are not only useful to humans but also other living things. These trees are places to live and homes for different animals to get food from. As well as people, other animals like deer and squirrels will find shelter from the tree tops.
One of the main benefits of cutting down a tree is that the nutrients from the leaves and fruit are used by people as fuel. For example, when you chop down a palm oil palm tree, most of its dry leaves are used to fuel a diesel car. The same thing happens with other trees that people cut down and sell as pulp. You can use part of the pulp that is left over to make palm oil or other petrochemicals that can be used for different things.
Trees also absorb CO2 and other greenhouse gases which is a leading cause of global warming. Cutting down trees releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This causes the earth's temperature to warm up which affects our climate. Cutting down tropical rainforests will release large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, causing the same thing as what is done when you burn fossil fuels. Cutting down forests is the leading cause of deforestation and rapid climate change.
A note of caution about cutting down trees. It is important that people not cut down more than thirty percent of a plantation. If they do, it could lead to deforestation which could lead to even more climate changes. There have been cases in the past where people have cut down their own trees to save them from extinction. But even when there is no immediate need for more trees, this should not be the first option. A good way to go about this is to plant those that are native to your region and have been growing for many years, as these are considered to be more sustainable.
So why should we care? Cutting down trees may seem harmless when you are just harvesting a few logs, but this is actually one of the worst things that we can do. Carbon dioxide builds up in the atmosphere with every tree cut down, so imagine the amount of carbon dioxide released when all of the trees worldwide were cut down. Even if we don't have an immediate problem with cutting down trees, it is something that will happen in the future. With deforestation, we will create more carbon dioxide and methane which act like smoke from coal power plants and contribute to climate change. And when this happens, we will definitely have to deal with the consequences.
While there may be some paper production processes that require the use of trees, many other processes such as cosmetic manufacturing, food processing and paper production won't. And by using less trees, we are not only helping save our planet, we are also helping reduce the pollution that is created from the burning of fossil fuels. By choosing to use non-forested paper products, we are not only reducing our carbon footprint, we are saving our trees. And in the long run, we will be doing our part to save our environment. So start cutting down trees today!