“Dont mess with Nature” Of all the things a student needs to make it through a typical day, probably the most important, yet least appreciated, is paper. Paper is used for academic, social, and personal purposes by nearly all students every day.
The most obvious use is for the academic or classroom assignment, whether it comes in the form of a test, an essay, or a summary of plant life on Easter Island. The social uses of paper center around the “note,” which any student can tell you is s important a part of a students social life as Friday night ball games or the Junior Prom. As for the personal applications, there is doodling for the nervous mind, and there is scrunching for the nervous hand. The traditional paper airplanes and spit wads are still around, but they seem less popular than in days gone by-probably because it is easier for a student to move freely about the classroom today than it used to be. In any case, there can be no doubt that paper is just as important as ever to the stude! nt whose days would be a waste without it. Not only students, but everyone needs paper.
Just as students use the paper, so does everyone else. The social purpose surrounds the mail, which we receive everyday. For personal use, theres the diary and the note pads to remind us the things we need to remember. There are many examples that I can give for instance, paper plates, paper bags, cardboard boxes, etc Anyhow, the point that I am deriving at is that paper and cardboard boxes are all made from trees. Millions of trees are being destroyed every year to produce paper.
Not only for paper, but for housing projects as well. New programs are being set up to plant trees in replace of the destroyed ones. Little do people realize how much damage could be done when dealing with nature. These housing projects are built, where beautiful trees use to sit letting cool breeze pass through their leaves. Now, the Recycling foundation has set up a program for young kids to plant trees in their neighborhood to save “Mother Earth.” These trees are being planted at almost every street corner.
The kids dont know whats likely to happen. They think they are doing good for their community. Now, trees as thick as fifteen baseballs put together, creep up underneath the sidewalk all over town. No one really notices a tree growing in front of their house until at some point of growth where its finally noticeable.
Many people in the United States think that what they dont know cant hurt them. But it does. Trees have cost many their lives. Either the trees grew over their houses or a heavy thunderstorm blew it off its roots onto a house.
Last year, in a town near where I live, a father was taking his kids to school. The wind that day was so powerful that it picked a tree off its roots, landed right on the jeep killing all three kids in the back seat. Let alone, statistics on channel seven show that last year New Jersey had the highest death rates from trees(Buetel 1997). In his essay, Controlling The Atchafalaya,” John McPhee shares with us the story on the Mississippi River.
If no one did anything to the Atchafalaya River, it would have destroyed cities, similarly if the trees are not being watched over, many innocent lives will be lost. Though, technology is letting us control the growth of a tree, there are consequences that are not yet known. “The American Ruhr,” as McPhee states, will be completed wiped out without paper(360). These companies need paper to survive. Thus, promoting the destruction of trees.
Yes, sure cut trees, but put new ones where its most likely going to cause as least damage as possible. Many people think this a minute problem, but I dont think so. Why not plant tree in one isolated area? Why not built housing projects on dry flat land, rather than cutting trees down and building over it? What Im attempting to discuss in this paper is how nature can get real frustrated with us if we dont leave it alone. That it must be repeated here indicates the difficulties involved in communicating on the subject of nature.
