The right to life: Even trees have it

How long is a lifetime? Well that really depends on whose lifetime, or what’s lifetime I guess. For a human it’s about 75-80 years, an elephant in the wild about 50 years, a koala around 14-18 years and we all know the lifespan of an Iphone…About 8-9 months! Everything comes to an end I suppose, eventually, some through natural causes and others’ through disaster, famine, wear and tear or human involvement; Just a few life-ending occurrences out of probably millions!

We are currently on vacation in the United Kingdom and met a dead thing yesterday, at the Museum of Natural History in London; It was an impressive looking thing for both its size and the fact that it was so old. Was so old being the operative words. It once lived its life just hanging out and doing stuff but then was killed and became the cold hard lifeless thing it is today. I refer, of course, to the slice of sequoia tree you see in the picture above.

Now as far as the life of a tree goes they don’t really live exciting ones; Trees prefer to pretty-much stay put and simply breathe locking away carbon and breathing out air. That’s pretty much it; They are alive though, make no mistake about it. Now, this particular tree led a full life and never hurt anyone. It just did its thing.

557: The tree started life as a little-tacker, a seedling pushing upwards for the sky nourished on water, earth and sun.

622: The Islamic calendar began.

886: The first known book was printed in China

1106: The Great Comet made it’s appearance on the 2 of February in 1106 and the tree had a great view.

1202: The mathematician Fibonacci wrote his famous book on arithmetic (probably printed on paper from a tree).

1300: The Black Death spread across Europe and the Middle East wiping out millions of people; About a third of the population.

1543: Nicolaus Copernicus published his theory about the earth rotating around the sun. The tree didn’t much care though, as long as it had sunlight.

1687: Isaac Newton published his laws of motion and gravity.

1760: The Industrial Revolution begins.

1859: Charles Darwin publishes his work On the origin of species.

1891: Someone cuts down the tree.

The cut you see in the image was taken from the Mark Twain Tree, which stood over 100 metres tall. It was felled in 1891 when over 70% of the world’s land area was natural habitat including trees and forests. By the 21st-century this had reduced to 40% due to logging, land clearing and urban development.

By the year 2100 there is expected to be 11 billion people on the planet, which will make for interesting times for the planet and it’s non-human inhabitants. I don’t think it bodes well for any of us, or the planet.

Just a note on the reason for the tree being felled: It was taken down so sections of it could be displayed in the London and New York museums. Another was felled for a 3O foot section which was hollowed out into a two story house for display at the 1893 Chicago World Fair. 1341 years old and it gives its life for human hubris. Humans have a lot to answer for although only our own demise might save the planet.

[- Design and create your ideal life, don’t live it by default -]