There are very few deranged people who will actually set fire to a forest deliberately just to watch it burn, but when we cause our forests to be destroyed each and every day, we are doing pretty much the same thing. Now you might say that you would never deliberately burn up a forest, but when we have no regard for the products we use that are made from trees, then we are taking part in destroying a vital element of our environment.

We use paper products like they will never go out of style and like they will never run out. While many people are planting more trees to replace those that are harvested for our needs, our forests and those around the rest of the world are still being depleted at a faster rate than we can plant new ones. The sad thing about it is that so much of the tree products we use are absolutely unnecessary or wasted.

Every time we buy a product at some store that is over packaged, we are contributing to destroying trees. Every time we use paper towels instead of reusable cloths, we destroy trees. Each time we waste a piece of writing paper, we are killing another tree. Even when we waste toilet paper or throw away a newspaper instead of recycling it, we kill another tree. If human beings were used to make paper products or building materials, well, we would definitely find a way to make sure we conserved everything we could and would not waste a single thing.

Trees play an intricate part in supplying oxygen for our environment. They give homes and refuge to our wildlife. They prevent soil from being eroded and washed away. Just imagine what it would be like to live on our planet where trees have become extinct. This is a little far fetched because many are doing more to prevent this from ever really happening, but we all need to do more each day to preserve, conserve, and recycle everything we can. Our world only has a limited amount of natural resources and when they are gone where will we be then?

Our children deserve to be left with a planet that is at least as great as it was when we were born and unless we all begin to take conservation more seriously, that gift to our children might not be possible. Let our generation be the ones to turn around the way we deal with nature and the natural gifts it has given us to use, but not abuse.