==JAPAN: KM== [Environment]

Today, a mountain of direct mail is sent without permission everyday. From articles about nursing care, and information about jobs and marriage, to the information about old people's homes and family graveyards, the materials are endless. Targeting the situation of the individuals, the direct mail is sent to be timely. But most direct mail is thrown out in the wastebasket directly without being looked through. Otherwise our rooms would be filled with paper. This is a waste of paper, isn't this?
But paper was precious till before the war. In Japan, it was in the Edo era when paper came into use by the public. It was so precious till then that "Bushi" made paper a present. Even in the Edo era there are records that a rich person's son was disowned because he used high grade paper as tissue paper. On the other hand, another person chased after only a single sheet of paper which blew into a valley.
As you know, most paper is made from wood. Therefore a lot of trees are cut down. Tropical forests existing in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia are decreasing at a very fast pace. According to the investigation by the United Nations, every year tropical forests equal to half the area of the main Island of Honshu disappear.
The species of living things in the world are said to number 5 to 10 million. Half of them are concentrated in the tropical forests. If tropical forests are destroyed and the ecosystem collapses, animals and plants living there will become extinct. For human beings plants in tropical forests are essential. They contain our staple foods. And the basic components of modern medical supplies rely on tropical plants.
In the Amazon, which holds one third of the tropical forests of the world, a lot of rain falls. About half of the rain is water which comes from the Pacific and the Atlantic ocean and the rest is moisture that evaporates from tropical forests of the Amazon. If tropical forests in the Amazon are destroyed, the rain which falls in the Amazon will decrease rapidly. This isn't limited to the Amazon. As a result, in Europe and Asia as well, the rainfall will decrease, and it leads to the worldwide change f climate.
The races living in the tropical forests decrease rapidly. It is said that 87 races died out this century. They had not destroyed nature and lived without changes for thousands of years. But they have become a sacrifice of modern civilization that has developed by destroying nature.
The trees of the tropical forests pump up a lot of water from the roots. The amount is 30-60 liters a day for huge trees. This water evaporates from their leaves slowly. The water carried into the air becomes cold in the sky and becomes clouds, and then turns into rain and falls to the ground. If tropical forests are destroyed, this water cycle is lost, the trees which carry the rain are lost and are not able to store the water under the ground, and the rainfall decreases and a drought happens. In addition, if the rain forests which cover the ground are exhausted, the topsoil is carried away. In this way the ground loses nutrients and becomes a desert.
Paper we use unthinkingly is made with many sacrifices. The sacrifices will lead to crisis of the earth. In short, we are destroying the earth to improve our life. Today, we have not found any epoch-making solution for the present. But we have to do something to leave the precious resources for the future. So we must do all we can do.

COMMENT
Not so many years ago, people valued paper, nevertheless many people of today waste it. Regrettably, I'm one of them. If the pace we use the trees is more rapid than the one they grow, the trees should come to an end someday. I came to know that the progress of science and the destruction of nature exist back to back. But we are never permitted to break the system of nature. So as he mentioned, human beings should cast off egoism and consider how to coexist with nature.

Naoe Takahashi