Why Be Concerned?
What do all these problems have to do with you? For one thing there are the economic factors. As the trees disappear, the price of wood products and derivatives — from your daily newspaper to lumber — will continue to escalate. Non tropical forests will fall victim to pressing worldwide needs.
Even more ominous is one especially menacing effect of deforestation: the altering of worldwide weather patterns. "The president of the Brazilian Academy of Science warned that Amazonian forest- was being destroyed at the rate of 2,700 meters an hour and would be totally gone within 35 years, possibly affecting forever the world's weather system" (ibid).
It is estimated that the devegetating activities of man and his domestic animals have already drastically altered 20 percent of the total area of the continents, with a resulting change in the heat and water budget. Combine the damage man has done to the environment down through the centuries with the current onslaught in the tropical forests and there is a real cause for alarm. The balance of nature depends partly on a certain percentage of the earth's surface being covered with trees. In a way, there is a parallel with the skin of a human being. A person can tolerate the loss of a certain percentage of his skin and survive. But let that critical point be surpassed and the whole life-system fails.
Likewise with the earth's forest covering. It plays an essential part in the global recycling of water, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen, as well as influencing the wind, temperature and humidity. Scientists studying the situation are divided in their predictions as to whether it will become warmer or colder as the result of deforestation, plus the smoke of slash-and-burn agriculture. A slight change either way will be sufficient to upset the weather patterns as we have known them.
Out on a Limb with "Super-trees"?
Some see a note of optimism in what they hope can be achieved through the use of "super-trees," winged beans and other hardy, rapidly growing plants. So-called super-trees (most of them actually are large legumes) may reach a height of more than 20 feet in one year — and even the foliage is edible. Capable of slowing erosion and adding nutrients to the soil, they are a source of pulp, paper and firewood. Meanwhile the winged bean is a smaller plant almost entirely edible, including its roots. It is hoped such plants can be "farmed" where forests once stood.
But it costs money to put such plants where they are needed. And a lot of convincing has to be done all the way from the highest levels of various governments to the forest farmer whose set pattern of doing things is often hard to change. Besides, these fast-growing plants can never really replace a natural hardwood forest. It's not unlike tearing out a flower garden and sowing a fast-growing, edible weed instead. The weeds may prevent erosion, they may be prolific and even provide food. But the weeds are not flowers!
The Trunk of the Tree
A tree, whether part of a forest or standing alone on a city lot, ought not to be taken for granted. Of course there is a proper way and time to harvest timber and forest products. No one is saying there isn't. But the wholesale and indiscriminate destruction of forests and woodlands is wrong.
When God created the first man and woman He put them in an ideal environment — a garden with plenty of trees. Adam was told to dress and keep the garden (Genesis 2:9, 15). That meant responsible stewardship. That is exactly what is needed now over the forests and woodlands of the earth.
But who is going to decide what constitutes responsible stewardship? The lumber companies? Multinational corporations? Developers? Cattle ranchers? Poverty-stricken farmers? Scientists? Conservationists? Bureaucrats? Someone has to be in charge, but who?
Just as to the other problems plaguing mankind — there is only one real solution to the growing crisis concerning earth's forests: fair, responsible, incorruptible world government. The kind of government Jesus Christ is going to bring to this earth.
Ever since the days of Cain, there have been people who have tried to "force" the earth — attempting to wring more out of it than it can give. Forgotten has been the fact that God has not blessed some portions of the earth to where they can sustain large numbers of people and animals. It is a mistake to try to surpass the limit of what the land can do.
The problems posed by the millions of forest farmers who themselves are victims of circumstance — those who need firewood in order to survive, those whose animals overgraze the land, the profit-hungry commercial and industrial interests and all others who, combined, are ravaging the world's forestlands and killing off the trees — these problems can only be fully resolved under the Government of God. Here's how it will occur.
At Last — Reforestation the Right Way!
One of the specific policies to be put into effect in the coming World Tomorrow, of which we speak, is a gigantic reforestation program. If one is needed now, there will really be a need for one by then. The reason is that one third of all trees still remaining will be burned up in the cataclysmic military events bringing this age to a close (Revelation 8:7).
God revealed His reforestation program to the prophet Isaiah in these terms: "I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive; I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together" (Isaiah 41:19, RSV).
Notice that in God's reforestation program there will be a variety of trees planted together. He will not follow the "tree farm" approach where single species are planted over vast stretches with the quick-profit motive in mind. Nor will He rely on "super-trees."
The way of greed, which is really at the base of the present-day problem, originated with Satan, a great fallen archangel. Isaiah 14 speaks of this being, using the "king of Babylon" as a type. One of the characteristics of his rule is the indiscriminate cutting down of trees! The Bible pictures the trees as rejoicing when Satan's rule is overthrown: "The cypresses rejoice at you, the cedars of Lebanon, saying, 'Since you were laid low [note the pun!], no hewer comes up against us' " (verse 8, RSV).
This is not to say that in the World Tomorrow no trees will be cut down. To the contrary, Isaiah 60:13 and Ezekiel 41:22 show there will be a right use of beautiful woods. Material resources will be wisely employed. For one thing, there will not be a need for paper to print all the useless books and publications that are printed today. What is printed in the World Tomorrow will be worth printing. And when society is set up and run God's way, there may be many uses for wood that seem essential in today's world, which then just may be obsolete. There may be better ways of fulfilling these needs.
The Bible gives a remarkable description in portraying the peace that will prevail in the world soon to come. When all nations are at peace, "they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid" (Micah 4:4). If each household has its own fig tree, there is no reason to assume it may not also have other fruit- and nut-bearing trees, as well as trees for shade and beauty.
When God's government is ruling the world, there will be no more wasteful plundering of earth's natural resources. Instead there will be wise use, development and conservation combined. The Bible pictures the trees at that time as shouting for joy (Psalm 96:12-13; Isaiah 44:23). Then the hills will indeed be alive with the sound of music, for "the mountains and hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, and for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off" (Isaiah 55:12-13).