Karenni Nwayoo

THE STATE OF THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY IN MYANMAR

General Knowledge

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1st October 2022

THE STATE OF THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY IN MYANMAR

According to WWF, Myanmar has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. In the publication by Hla Hla Win on Environmental Awareness and Environmental Education in Myanmar, 3,459,475 acres of forests has been already lost because people depend on excessive farming and ploughing. Wood fuel extraction is the biggest single demand on forest biomass, significantly greater than timber. Fuelwood is the primary fuel for as much as 95% of rural domestic energy needs, and estimations range between 60 to 80 percent of total energy consumption. There has been an increase in demand in the market for fuel timber and non-wood forest products such as orchids, bat guano, and cane. Thus, it leads to a dwindling biodiversity in tidal forests, and the most striking case is mining and illegal poaching of wild animals, especially elephants for their tusks and deer.

Waste dumping from industries without any compaction, air, river and sea water contamination, methane production, release of greenhouse gas and potential landfill fires are another key environmental pollution in Myanmar. Pollutants in air and water put the lives of children aged from 5 to 14 years old at risk due to malnutrition, lung and cardiovascular disease, and other behavioral risks. In 2017, air pollution has attributed to more than 45,000 deaths in Myanmar. Air pollution is higher than other countries in the Asian region and is almost twice the average of Southeast Asia (World Bank).

According to the ASEAN Post, under Su Kyi’s administration, in 2019, the government introduced two new policies which are to raise awareness of extreme weather and other climate change events that could threaten the country’s economic and social development. The Myanmar Climate Change Strategy 2018-2030 was drafted by the country’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (MONREC) with support and assistance from other organizations. The long term goal is to achieve climate-resilience and a low-carbon growth pathway to support inclusive and sustainable development by 2030. Having said that, reports state that Myanmar government is struggling with a sustainable development plan and need resources and effective rules and regulations.

Thus, I doubt the efficiency of the government’s efforts on climate change issue which needs concrete plans and effective implementation. Under the given political and economic hardship in Myanmar under the military coup for four months, I perceive it will be more challenging for Climate Change development which includes an increase in corruption for illegal ploughing, excessive farming resulting deforestation, potentially resulting more of the damage and depletion of natural resources in the future. However, if there is likely that the democracy wins over the military authoritarian regime sooner, it is evident that positive effects will outweigh the negative consequences in 2050 because only the democracy can bring benefits to Myanmar in every aspect, while the military will be looking for its own profits like before.

Since Nargis Cyclone, a large number of INGOs and NGOs started to establish in Myanmar for humanitarian projects specially to aid cyclone refugees. There have been a greater number of NGOs and CSOs after 2015 general election and are given more autonomy and freedom. In almost every sector, especially in social, education, health and climate change, the role of CSOs play a large role, even reaching rural and remote areas. Among them, Conyet Create and Spectrum organizations are university-focused climate change and environmental programs.

For sustainability programs and environmental protection in private sectors, FMI also provides opportunities for new roles and activities in local companies. At the same time, the role of youth is also given a more important role under NLD’s administration that they come to participate in leading sectors, and in self- and social development activities. Youth programs, most popularly, ’Green City’ and ‘YSEALI Seeds for the Future’ empower the youth in response to climate change issues by providing grants and capacity-buildings. There are climate change talk shows, tree planting activities, recycling projects, and other types of climate campaigns in different places both online and in-person.

Youth of Myanmar are already prone to experiencing poor environmental negative effects, such as global warming, air and water pollution, scarcity of water sources, sea level rising, and mass migration to urban areas. Potential threats that the youth and CSOs will be dealing with would be the increasing industries and private companies that expand their industries in the place of forests, and over harvesting of farmers. Thus, the role of government is also important to implement effective laws, rules and regulations which are to protect the mother nature, but also empower the role of youth and CSO in taking actions and responsibilities for climate change initiatives. In terms of opportunities, by providing information, training, technology, science or law, youth, individually or collaboratively with the NGOs, will be able to call on their government to take actions, and in the future, emerging climate change leaders and environmental activists will have a larger impact from solutions to climate change problems.

Author- LOVE

photo by The Myanmar Times

RESEARCH ACTIVITY IN KARENNI

General Knowledge

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25th September 2022

7

Demoso Township is situated in Loikaw District, Karenni or Kayah State. There was a lovely memory in Demoso Township. I would like to say “thank you to all who contributed to the lovely memory”.

What make lovely memory in Demoso?

Children are future leaders or valuable resources of our country. The growing and developing period of school-age is very important for them. They undergo physical, mental, emotional and social or psychological changes in this period which is also dynamic period of their growth and development. There is a need to assess whether children have proper growth and development and to make sure that they have a healthy lifestyle.

In children, parameters used to measure growth are height, weight and Body Mass Index (BMI). Growth data are also important indicators of general health and well-being. Therefore, the three growth parameters among the students in the Basic Education High School (Branch), Daw Ta Ma Nge, Demoso Township were analyzed in 2019.

Study Site

Basic Education High School (Branch) of Daw Ta Ma Nge in Demoso Township, Karenni or Kayah State (Plate 1)

Sample Students

A total sample of 129 students aged six to ten years including 79 boys and 50 girls (Plate 2)

Study Period

January 2019 – July 2019

Study Design

Data collection was based on the date of birth, sex, height and weight measurements. Samples were grouped according to the age (Plate 3).

Plate 3 Data collection based on the date of birth and sex

Measurements were taken by using the centrimetric measuring tape for height and the Mechanical Personal Scale (Model: BR 3010) for weight and recorded by the metric scale (Plate 4 and 5).

Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated using the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s BMI calculator available from the website http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov and recorded for each sample group. BMI was calculated using the formula: weight (kg) / [height (m) x height (m)] for all samples, who then were classified as underweight, healthy weight, overweight, or obese according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) cut-off points based on the charts (Plate 6 A and B) of Body Mass Index-for-age percentiles available from the website http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts. The CDC system defines underweight as a BMI less than the 5th percentile of the reference population, healthy weight as a BMI the 5th percentile to the 84th percentile, overweight as a BMI the 85th percentile to the 94th percentile, and obesity as a BMI the 95th percentile to above the 95th percentile.

(Source: http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts)

(A) Chart for boys aged 2 to 20 years

(Source: http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts)

(B) Chart for girls aged 2 to 20 years Plate 6 Charts of Body Mass Index-for-age percentiles

Results and Discussion

Table 1 Growth parameters of students according to age and sex

According to the results presented in Table 1, the mean values for the body height and body weight increased with the age among the boys as well as the girls.

The mean values for BMI were not increased with the age among the boys and girls. The ten years old group showed the highest mean value of BMI for the boys (15.39 ± 1.38 kg/m2) as well as for the girls (15.07 ± 1.37 kg/m2). The seven years old group showed the lowest mean value of BMI for the boys (14.25 ± 1.00 kg/m2) as well as for the girls (14.27 ± 1.51 kg/m2). These results indicated the good growth data in the ten years old group and the poor growth data in the seven years old group for both the boys and girls because the Body Mass Index (BMI) is a growth indicator for defining the nutritional status of a child and showing the general health and well-being.

Table 2 Growth parameters of students according to sex

According to the results presented in Table 2, there were numerically higher mean values of three growth parameters for the girls in comparison to the boys.

The girls had numerically higher values for the body height (1.20 m > 1.19 m) and body weight (21.34 kg > 21.02 kg) than the boys. It was found that the gender differences with regard to the body height and weight may be attributed to the dietary pattern during the period of growth and development. The girls with the higher mean values of body height and weight had a higher mean Body Mass Index (BMI) than the boys (14.76 kg/m2 > 14.66 kg/m2). These findings suggested that the gender difference in the mean BMI was according to the gender differences with respect to the mean body height and body weight.

The students were classified as healthy weight, underweight, overweight or obese according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) cut-off points (Table 3).

Table 3 BMI classified groups among the students

Based on the results presented in Table 3, 71.32% of the students had a BMI in the healthy weight and there was more prevalence in the boys (72.15% of the boys) than in the girls (70% of the girls). It was found that the BMI in the normal or healthy weight reflects the gender discrimination in providing the nutrition in terms of food.

The BMI in the underweight (25.58% of the total students) indicated that there is a need to assess the dietary pattern of local people and give information how to take their balanced diet with the high nutritional value.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks are due to Daw Naw Hae Ri Oo, Headmistress of the Basic Education High School (Branch) of Daw Ta Ma Nge in Demoso Township for her help to take the necessary growth measurements of the students. It is a pleasure for me to thank Daw Mya Than Htay, Daw Nant Cho Cho Htay, U Lin Lin Htet, Daw Naw Pan Do Ra and Daw Mai Hmun Nei Kim (lecturing staffs of Loikaw University) for their participation with great effort in this work.

References

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts

Is Climate Change Man-made?

General Knowledge

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31st July 2022

15

Do you think we are desirable to live in this modern world without worrying about nature? Climate change is becoming more and more widespread and hot topic in every country because of the effects and consequences of the climate change that people are suffering today. In 2013, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that “It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed climate change since the mid-20th century”. Although there is a debatable topic about global climate change like that, it is believed that climate change has been caused mainly because of the human actions including 1) Deforestation, 2) Intensive Farming and 3) Industrial Revolution.

The first scenario where climate change is due to human actions can be proved in deforestation. Deforestation occurs around the world, though tropical rainforests are particularly targeted. There are many causes of deforestation including; making more land available for housing and urbanization, harvesting timber to create commercial items such as paper, furniture and homes, creating ingredients that are highly prized consumer items, such as the oil from palm trees and so on. The deforestation of trees not only lessens the amount of carbon stored, it also releases carbon dioxide into the air; so the more CO₂ in the air, the more the atmosphere will tend to warm up. Deforestation is the second largest anthropogenic (human-caused) source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, ranging between 6 percent and 17 percent (Van Der Werf, G. R. et al., 2009). NASA also predicts that if current deforestation levels proceed, the world’s rainforests may be completely in as little as 100 years. Based on these research and findings from NASA and scientists, deforestation (man-made action) is considered to be one of the contributing factors to global climate change.

Along with the concern of deforestation, another question of man-made action which can cause global warming should be, how are intensive farming practices connected to climate change? The point that everybody seems to miss is that climate change is contributing in the meat and dairy industry through intensive farming practices; not the eating meat. The meat and dairy industry through intensive farming practices contributed 18% of greenhouse gases while cows and sheep produce large amounts of methane when they digest their food. The “meat industry” includes meat producers which do not use intensive farming methods such as clearing rain forest to produce livestock, destroying appropriate CO2 stores in soil by tilling, utilizing a large amount of resources to produce a small amount of meat, causing environment degradation from polluted waterways to excess energy in the atmosphere and so on. According to the FAO, when emissions from land use are factored in, the livestock sector accounts for 9 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions derived from human-related activities. Hence, not conducting and following favorable farming strategies to acquire meat and dairy products can cause global warming and this is also one of the facts that can prove climate change is human action.

Last but not the least, the industrial revolution has dramatically increased the amount of damage the human species is doing to Earth. Therefore, factories and industries which release huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is also another observable factor of human actions which lead to climate change. Factories also contribute to water and land pollution by acidifying rain, chemical spills and disposal of toxic waste. The most damaging greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, is released into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels that are used by the factories; and another harmful gas from the use of fossil fuels is sulfur dioxide, a key ingredient in the formation of acid rain. Rising carbon dioxide concentrations are already causing the planet to heat up and at the same time, the greenhouse gases such as methane, chlorofluorocarbons have been increasing, average global temperatures have risen 0.8 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1880 ( Evans 2006). Meanwhile global average temperature and greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere has been increasing since the mid-20th century, it can be proved that these effects are caused by anthropogenic( man-made) manufacturing and industrialized actions which is also result in climate change across the globe.

To put it in a nutshell, since scientists trying to find out what’s causing climate change through working like detectives, gathering evidence to rule out some suspects to ascertain just who is responsible. It’s clear, based on over a century of scientific investigation that humans are responsible for most of the climate change we’ve seen over the last 150 years. So, it is undeniable that a lot of man-made actions such as deforestation, increasing livestock farming and raising the numbers of industries and factories to be able to supply the increasing demands of the people are the culprits that are contributing to climate change around the world. Therefore, we should be aware of the climate change including both natural and man-made disasters occurring around the world and try to improve the quality of life for the people through conservation, protection and improvement of the environment including energy and natural resources to ensure the sustainable development efforts for future generations.

CARDIOPULMONARY ARREST IN ACCIDENT & TRAUMA AND CPR

General Knowledge

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30th July 2022

16

CARDIOPULMONARY ARREST IN ACCIDENT & TRAUMA AND CPR

What is cardiopulmonary arrest?

Cardio (means the Heart) and Pulmonary (means Lung) cannot do their functions. The result is “stop heart beating and breathing suddenly and fall down” is so called Arrest.

What are accident and trauma?

Car crush (e.g., hit by car, head on collision means a crash of two vehicles that are moving directly toward each other. And the car hit the objects while driving) etc.
Fall from a height (e.g., fall from high building or tree)
Being Attacked by weapons (such as knife, Guns, etc.)
Fire injuries
Bomb blast injuries

What happened when the people faced above accidents?

In car crash, the patient can suffer from broken bones, head injury, neck injury, muscle injury or wounds, etc. If the patient is stabbed by knife or hit by bullet to his chest or abdomen, it may get lung problem such as Hemothorax (the chest filled with blood), pneumothorax (the chest is filled with unnecessary air and his lung is pressed) or his main blood vessels or abdominal organs may be severely injured. (You can read more about Hemothorax and pneumothorax at the article of “the physical and psychological effects of war“)

In fire injuries, the patient can suffer from burns and breathing problem due to its smoke. The patient cannot breath due to lower oxygen in his surroundings.

In Bomb blast injuries, the patient can suffer above all kinds of problems mentioned above and can be more dangerous or worst conditions. And also, partial loss of parts of limbs) due to injury.

Is the accident can be fetal or cardiac arrest?

It may depend on how severe the injuries were. A lot of injuries and the major vital organs damage can lead to death. Loss of too many bloods can cause shock, breath smoke can cause coma (loss of conscious due to poor oxygen level in brain) and also get shock due to pain or head injury.

Finally, if the patient is cardiac arrest, what would you like to do?

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

It is a team work job. So first of all, shout for help and call for ambulance.

Talk to the patient and check the environment.

The patient cannot response back and now we need to carry the unconscious patient to a safe place. Because the patient may fall down in unsafe or dangerous area. If you don’t think this step, you will become a next patient, too.

Check the patient’s carotid pulsation.

Place your index (pointing) and middle (long) fingers on patient’s neck to the side of her windpipe or when your two fingers place under her jaw. Be aware of not to place in both side of neck because you can block the vessels which supply blood to the brain.

Access whether patient is breathing by look, listen and feel. (Breathing)

You should kneel right side of the patient (prepare comfortably yourself). If there is any foreign bodies/objects or blood clot can block the airway (mouth and nose), they must be taken out carefully from the mouth and nose. But never blind swab or remove foreign bodies from mouth or nose because this action may worse the conditions. So. look carefully before removal.

Place your pointing finger and long finger under the patient’s chin and lift it up to open the airway. Now, you can look the patient chest whether it move up and down, you can listen the patient’s breath by your breath by your ear and you can feel the air in and out of patient’s breathe by your cheek.

If the patient stop pulsation and breathing, CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation) must be started.

Body position of rescuer …

Stay side of the patient (prefer right side), kneel down, Your knee must be slightly apart each other to more comfort.

Your elbows must be straight. When you press the chess, use your shoulder force. Place your hands over the patient chest (two finger breadth from the end of the bone (sternum, the bone at the middle of the chest) (Not important which hand place above)

Compress 30 times to chest in 1 cycle to beat the heart within the rate of 100 to 120 per minute. Press down at least 1/3 depth (2 inches) of the chest to give enough force to beat again. In chest compressing, be aware of too shallow (not enough compress down) and not lift up your hands fully to previous chest height (at that time, you can be nervous and forget to release the chest fully when you lift up your hand). When you press slowly, it may not be enough rate to beat a heart. When you press too fast, you will be tired within 2 mins.

After 30 chest compression, give 2 rescue breaths. (30:2)

Put the patient chin lift up, close his nose tightly with your fingers and place your mouth to cover the patient’s the whole mouth. After you breathe fully, you must slightly put the air into the patient lungs through his mouth.

When you successfully put the air into the lungs, the patient’s chest must be raised (elevated because of enough air entry).

You can use a plastic mask to cover the patient’s mouth to protect yourself when the patient’s mouth is bleeding. (To protect from transmitted diseases via blood such as HIV, Hepatitis B and C, etc.)

You can use a mask if it is available. (If the patient bleed from mouth)

You can cut the Cola bottle to make a temporary mask. But this is not enough to give a full breathe. You should use only in the condition where there is no other options-mask or plastic bags when the mouth of the patient is continuously bleeding.

To prevent Hypothermia (reduce body temperature)

Cover the patient with tower or blanket to prevent heat loss from his body. Because hypothermia (heat loss) (reduce body temperature) which is lethal usually take place in trauma patients.

When to stop resuscitation?

when the patient fully gets back his breathing and heart beating. Then you should continue to open his airway by lift his chin up and cover the patient with tower or blanket to prevent heat loss from his body.
when another trained doctors or nurses or trained person or ambulance reach and take over the case, you should hand over the case and continue to help them.
when you are too tired to continue CPR.
the scene or environment becomes unsafe or dangerous conditions such as explosive risks.
Although the victim’s brain is severely damaged due to lack of oxygen for 9 mins, his brain functions is unlikely to return and he may get brain coma. But you can stop resuscitation after 20 mins of resuscitation is a fair enough, because the longest time to recover from arrest is 20 mins. (there is only one patient who get back fully after cardio-pulmonary arrest for 20 mins)

You should not do CPR followings conditions.

if the patient is severely injured and unconscious. e.g., The body is torn apart from waist in bomb blast, or gun shot to head and neck. (Death is certain for these conditions)
if there are too many victims and you have to choose the right patients to help (the number of victims is more than rescuers)
during war, when the environment is unsafe.
In hospital setting, if the patient signs the DNR (don not resuscitate, means he does not allow to do CPRR when he gets arrest by any cause) and if the patient with terminal illness such as cancer get arrest by any cause. (Usually they sign DNR)

Thank you very much for reading. This is about the CPR, and you can continue learning by searching in YouTube. CPR training is important and advice to train. You can give comments if you want to know or discuss something about CPR.

Any advice is welcome. Sharing is caring. Sharing CPR method can save your life.

Give some ideas for next topic in comments.

Author – Linkar Dipa

Physical and Psychological Effects of War and Conflict

General Knowledge

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21st July 2022

24

Physical and Psychological Effects of War and Conflict

No One wants a war. In the war, everyone can become a victim. Nobody wants to face it. Nevertheless, the adverse effects of war are explained, here. Let’s read it. In the end, you will notice the long journey of effects of war and conflicts.

“In war, Not everyone is a soldier.”

What are the Physical effects?

You can get injury during war. Not only gun shots and bomb blast injuries, but also fall from a height while running or seeking a place to hide may lead to injure your body. You might get such a harmful injury and even die.
Your life is in danger if you get wounded at your head, neck, heart or chest/ lungs and main blood vessels, etc. Your brain is dead if you are shot to the head, and you cannot breathe because the breathing center of brain is damaged. Most of the cause of death due to bullet injury is hypovolemic (hypo means lower, -volemic means the amount of circulating blood) because of bleeding a lot.

What will happen if you are shot to the chest?

A small hole in your chest can lead to die, if you did not notice and treat it.

What are the consequences of chest wound?

When the lungs is torn or bleed, you can suffer Hemothorax (Hemo means blood, thorax means lung). The lung is filled with blood when injury to the vessel by bullet or bomb blast pieces.
Now you are breathlessness (difficulty in breathing and you breathe faster and faster to get enough oxygen).

Why do you become breathlessness?

The working areas of damage lung is decreased due to the pressure of the blood or trapped air.
Let’s consider about how do this occur.
Let imagine lung as an oxygen exchange factory. The production is lower and lower due to the factory error.
Let imagine brain as an oxygen consumer. It will alarm the factory to produce enough oxygen so that the lung make breathing faster to supply. And breathing rate will higher.
Let imagine heart as transport company. (The heart pumps the blood which carries oxygen to the brain) Then, the brain warned the heart to carry oxygenated blood faster. And it leads the heart beats become quicker.
But the factory collapse and cannot maintain the output, and try to make more production worst the damage. The more you breathe in, the more you feel breathlessness.
Should never be missed it! It should be treated as soon as possible.
You can suffer from burns due to explosive weapon.
Your skin will be burnt due to heat or hot objects.
You can suffer from broken bones or injuries if you fall on the ground or fall from building, etc.
Or you can lose your part of the limbs. (Amputation)
Or you can be a disable or handicapped person.

Those are possible physical injuries. Moreover, the treatments of such injuries will never be enough. Insufficient materials (medicine) and man power (health care personals) are threats to give good treatments for them. During war, the domestic health problems such as general illness, pneumonia, malaria, malnourishment, abdominal pain and so on will be definitely challenging for their health.

These are only few parts of War’s effect. Let’s continue reading.

Shelter, Water and Toilet

The shelter is almost always not safe. It would not enough for the bad weather conditions, such as cold and rain. Additionally, there will be threats of wild animals such as snake or other insects. Lack of sufficient Toilet and clean water. Besides, poor hygiene and sanitation may cause a diarrhea (loose motion)

Starvation …

During war, the starvation is one of the huge issues that refugees will need to solve. Not enough food to feed them. The children are always hungry. The medical problems owing to malnourishment such as vitamin deficiency, will be one of the difficulties of war.

Psychological Impact of Victims of War and Conflict

The physical impact is worse. Nevertheless, the psychological injuries are also not good. The victims of war suffer a lot of mental traumas, e.g., Fear, Insecure, post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), mental problems of being handicapped (due to physical injury), loss of properties or jobs or relatives and so on.

Would you mind if you are asked some questions?

Have you ever seen a mental patient?
If yes, please think what causes make he or she has a mental problem?
What will you do if you meet him or her?

Fear

In a war and conflict times, the victims are always thread to injuries and lives. Horror to live such as force to participate in war and risk of being raped against their will. They will be stressed for thinking of loss of their relatives by the terror of war.

The victims will surely face the sleepless nights (sleep disturbance) or nightmares due to insecure. They worry what will happen tomorrow, what to eat, where to sleep, and how about for medicine. Lack of sleep may cause the victims feel weak, reduce immunity (ability of the body to fight against disease), later you can get heart problem. You can read more about the effects of lack of sleep at Raungni website of app.

Depression and Anxiety …

No one is happy in war time. Loss of job and not enough income for essential things to live. The victims had to leave their belongings if they abandon their home. Hopeless days and nights may worse the depression.

When the victims feel depress, their desires to eat or sleep are falling dawn. They will think that they do not want to live anymore and their suicidal tendency are high, especially in elderly victims.

When you feel depressed, there are many ways to relief your stress such as chat with your friends, read books or meditation.

Even though during war and conflicts, these activities can be done without much difficulties. Stay strong and never loss your hope.

There is always a sunny day with breezes after the storm. There is a dawn after the darkness night.

Never surrender, never lose.

Post-traumatic stress syndrome

This is the later effects of war which the victims will suffer because of the horror experience of war.

The victims cannot forget about the memories of difficult times for some extents. They will continue suffering lacks of sleep, worries, depression and anxiety.

If they were the handicapped person due to war related injuries, they feel more anxiety. They think that they cannot return to normal lives as before war. They, however, think that they have to find new job for their livings. Furthermore, the cost of treatment will burden them, too.

They can still be afraid even when they hear the words “War”. Afraid of loud noise because they think that it is explosion of bomb. When they are alone, the negative thoughts which they experienced in war will depress them, again.

Conclusion …

Please answer, which war is good? No and it is always.

Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus (Roman General) said the words “if you want peace, prepare forwar”, is the original Latin of the expression that comes a book named Epitoma Rei Militaris at that time of roman empire led by the King: Theodosius (379 to 395 century).

Ending the war and Justice must win for a better life will be the best answer and that is all my wishes.

Thank you for reading. Stay strong.Any comment is appreciated.One day, surely the day will be arrived where the peace is promised and the sorrow is gone.

Author – Linkar Dipa

How to Reduce and Prevent Deforestation

General Knowledge

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21st July 2022

14

Where is deforestation happening?

To certain extent, deforestation happens everywhere in the world and has been happening even throughout our history. Within the limits of sustainability, forests have incredible capacity to recover and can be logged for centuries without getting damaged.

The problem comes when our consumption exceeds the natural ability of forests to regenerate, and when we start to overexploit this resource on a large-scale. Unfortunately, this is exactly what is currently happening in many tropical countries that are homes to unique rainforests.

According to a 2017 study of the world’s deforestation hot spots, Brazil, Indonesia and Democratic Republic of Congo are countries with the highest absolute forest loss in the world.

In Brazil, forests are cleared to make space for agriculture. In Indonesia it is for the palm oil and paper industry. And in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the main reason is extensive tree felling for fuel and farm land around rapidly growing cities.

But we do not have to go deep into the lush rainforest to witness sad effects of deforestation. Greentumble has written even about the spread of illegal deforestation in Romania due to the corrupt government, or total destruction of forests in Ukraine for the amber mining, and reported on the scale of deforestation in the United States as well.

How to Reduce and Prevent Deforestation

Forests are one of the most important ecosystems on Earth. 80 percent of all terrestrial plants, insects, and animals call forests home. Nearly one third of people in the world depend directly on forests for their livelihoods.

Trees help regulate the climate, filter water through their root system, capture dust particles and pollutants from the air and stabilize soils against erosion. They perform these vital services equally for everyone without taking into account country boundaries or the size of your income.

Every day, we use resources that forests provide to us, such as timber, firewood, medicinal and edible plants. Yet if we continue to lose our forests at the current rate, in 80 years from now there will be no forest left on our “green” planet.

Deforestation is happening everywhere on the planet for many different reasons that vary from region to region. Vast areas of rainforests in a number of tropical countries, including Indonesia, Brazil, and Malaysia, have been destroyed to make way for palm oil, soy plantations and cattle ranches. The increasing global demand for wood products threatens many ancient forests around the world, whether it is for paper products, furniture or fuel.

Ending deforestation is the best chance we have to stabilize our climate, save wildlife species and protect our well-being. Protecting the forest is our mutual responsibility, no matter how far away we live from the nearest one. Adopt some of these strategies to help prevent the loss of more trees.

The death of the forest is the end of our life.
Dorothy Stang

What can we do about deforestation?

1. Plant a tree

The most straightforward personal strategy to fight against deforestation is to plant a tree. Planting a tree could be considered a lifelong investment into the environment and your good mental health.

The cutting down of trees causes billions of tons of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) to be released into the air. By planting trees, you are helping to combat global warming because trees absorb carbon dioxide. You are also helping to reduce run off water from the hills. Tree roots prevent landslides and rock slides that sometimes can harm animals, people or damage buildings. Planting and caring for trees is essential for the overall health and quality of life of the community.

Trees are known for their mind soothing and healing properties. Just walking through a forest and looking at the trees calms our mind, alleviates worries and helps tired eyes recover from strain.

You can start by planting one tree, or two, or you can even plant a whole forest.

2. Use less paper

Two million trees are cut every day just to supply the paper demand of the United States.

Globally, 40 percent of all timber is used to make paper products, and the demand for paper increases by two to three percent every year. This means that the paper industry is still consuming more and more trees.

Since the industry has such a high need for wood, it should come as no surprise that some part of the timber originates from illegal logging.

By printing out every email and wasting paper, you are unwittingly spinning the wheel of illegal forest destruction. Reduce your paper use when you can. This way, you will decrease your contribution to the loss of forests.

3. Recycle paper and cardboard

Did you know that one ton (2,000 pounds) of paper put to recycle prevents the cutting of 17 trees? These 17 trees then sequester around 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air every single year.

If just 10 percent of all the paper used by the average American in one year were recycled, 25 million trees would be saved. That makes 367 million pounds of carbon dioxide absorbed by these trees in one year.

Imagine how many trees you can save and how much good they perform for the quality of our lives by recycling all your paper.

4. Use recycled products

You may have noticed a little label “made from recycled paper” on your new notebook. The same label can be found on many other daily use items like books, paper bags, egg packaging and even toilet paper.

By choosing items made from recycled paper, you make a conscious effort to lower the demand for more timber.

Besides decreasing the need to cut more trees, your purchase is also supporting paper recycling facilities and reducing the amount of waste entering landfills. Therefore, try to purchase your next notebook made from recycled paper and the environment will be very thankful.

The same rule goes for furniture shopping. When buying a new piece of furniture, try to look first for already used pieces. You can often find real treasures for almost no cost. All they need is just a little bit of refurbishing. But this way you can obtain truly unique and personalized pieces for your interior.

5. Do not burn firewood excessively

More than two billion people around the world rely only on firewood to cook and heat their homes. Unfortunately, this often happens in poor areas where already vulnerable forests near villages and towns are cut for fuel well before they can regenerate. Such mismanagement slowly leads to their total disappearance.

Global forests suffer already a great deal of damage from our excessive consumption, when you want to make a fire in your fireplace, make sure you burn wood from sustainably managed forests that have enough time to naturally regenerate.

6. Raise awareness

Major environmental problems such as deforestation often continue to occur because of a lack of awareness and knowledge about the problem.

By educating people about the effects of their actions, such as palm oil consumption, the amount of deforestation can be reduced. Tell your friends and family about steps they can take to reduce global deforestation or show them this article.

Better awareness and education is important even in the case of farmers. Education of local farmers about optimizing their land management will ensure that less forested areas need to be cleared for farming. After all, farmers are the stewards of our lands.

7. Help restore degraded forests

Restoration of degraded forests is a challenging task that takes decades, and requires careful planning and monitoring. It is not easy, but it is necessary if we do not want to lose all our forests. What is wonderful about forest restoration is the ecosystem’s capacity to perfectly recover and give us a new chance to start once again.

8. Fight governmental corruption

Corrupt governments are often payed off by illegal logging companies to ignore their activities. Do not support corrupt politicians and systems. Reduction of corruption will go a long way towards reducing deforestation overall.

In many poorer countries, the lack of police presence and law enforcement means that illegal deforestation often goes unpunished and unnoticed for many years, even though it is destroying the country’s economy and resource wealth.