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Save the Trees! 5 Little-Known Facts About the Effects of Deforestation
When you saw this topic, you may have been thinking, “Wait! I thought you all sold materials for special occasions?” Well, yes, you are 1000% correct. Although we are in the business of providing high-quality special occasion accessories like our wedding cake toppers, we want to take a moment to talk about something near and dear to our hearts: the effects of deforestation. Contrary to popular belief, deforestation has a significant impact on everyone worldwide, which is why it is a cause that we have been committed to for the past 7 years. One tree can provide as many as 1000 cake toppers; therefore, we need trees to continue providing you with our amazing products. This is a topic that many have heard about, but very few take the time to understand just how important it is to save our trees. Take a look below to get a quick look at 7 things that you may not know about the effects of deforestation.
We all are aware of how much people love to eat their beef. Whether it be a burger or a big juicy steak, people worldwide love their beef! Here’s the issue with that. For the past 10 years, the demand for beef has been steadily increasing. Call it population growth or a change in the planet, but we love our meat. Unfortunately, as the demand increases, so does the amount of land that is needed to herd the cattle. Farmers need more land to create the pastures, so the forest has to be cut down to support that endeavor. Now, just how much land are we talking about? About 81,081 square miles of forest land is lost because farmers need more land to pasture for cattle. Unfortunately, those burgers and steaks are causing problems in the ecosystem.
Carbon dioxide gets released into the atmosphere every time trees are burned or cut down. If it’s just a couple of trees here and there—like if you were cutting down trees for firewood—it wouldn’t be a huge problem. However, land developers are getting rid of these trees at an exponential rate to meet the demand for more houses and buildings. As a result, we’re looking at nearly 5 BILLION tons of carbon dioxide being released yearly. Compare that to the 10% of annual human emissions in the same time frame. As you can see, more housing means another shot at Mother Nature.
You’ve probably seen an influx of soy-based products in the market today for those who are looking for plant-based options to integrate into their diets. Although humans are starting to eat more soy, we are not the primary consumers of this plant. You’ll never guess who is: cattle. Yes, the same cattle that are being herded on a lot of the land that was once home to beautiful trees. I think you see where we’re going with this. All these cows have to eat something, and it’s not grass. In fact, the animal feed that is used to fatten up our cattle contains nearly 77% of soy. 77% guys! That means that soy is contributing to deforestation as well. On top of being primarily consumed by cattle, the actual growth cycle of soy makes it less than favorable for the environment as well.
This was a stat from 2019, but let’s think about it for a second (no pun intended). The average soccer field is somewhere between 100-130 yards long and 50-100 yards wide. For those of you who aren’t big soccer fans and prefer football, a football field is 120 yards long and 53.3 yards wide. Okay, now that you have the numbers, let’s paint the picture: imagine going to your favorite team’s soccer or football game. Think about how HUGE that field is. Now, think about if that whole field was to suddenly burst into flames. Not only does it burst in flames, but it takes only a few seconds to do it. I know, a little dark, but you need to understand just how much damage was being done every six seconds to the rainforest. Terrifying, isn’t it? We couldn't agree more.
The more the effects of deforestation are shared in the media, the more people start to see just how serious it is. Whether people want to admit it or not, deforestation can cause global warming, an issue for everyone regardless of where they are on this globe. As a result of the media attention, a climate conference took place among the United Nations, which resulted in over 200 countries pledging to reduce their carbon footprint and make more strides to reduce the effects of deforestation. Part of their pledge was to eliminate deforestation by 2030. We’re about 2 years in from when this conference took place, so we’ll see what happens!
As you can see, the effects of deforestation can be felt on different levels, and we at designLEE Studio are committed to reducing those effects as much as possible. We use paper and wood in our products, and because we are borrowing from Mother Nature, we want to give back to her in a meaningful way. We enjoy the beauty of trees and want to ensure there’s plenty of wood to go around. Therefore, us planting one tree for every cake topper helps to offset what we use in our products and contributes to helping reduce deforestation worldwide. Every little bit helps, and it’s going to take all of us working together if we want to see change.
How are you reducing your carbon footprint or giving back to Mother Nature? Please be sure to let us know in the comments.
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