In line with TARTLE’s mission to promote climate stability, one of its Big 7, James and Alex welcomed Suzanne Simard to the podcast.
Suzanne, who is a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia and the author of Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering The Wisdom of the Forest, explores the significance of emphasizing data-driven action on climate change — particularly on the old growth forests of British Columbia.
She offers an eye-opening perspective on the deterioration of these old growth forests and the colossal amount of environmental data with untapped potential. Throughout their discussion, she also drew plenty of thoughtful parallels between big data and the fight against deforestation.
The complex data networks making up a bulk of the tech systems we are heavily dependent on today are eerily similar to the interactions of trees in old growth forests.
Suzanne realized that trees are in constant conversation underground. This is made possible with the help of sophisticated fungal networks that link one tree to the rest of the forest. However, this large-scale communication network is displaced when the old forests are cut down — and even when plantations are created, the network “goes silent for a little while.”
Even when the forest begins to rebuild, it would take decades — if not centuries — for these areas to regain the same complexity that they once had when they interacted as a society of trees in an old growth forest.
Beyond the impact of this loss to local biodiversity, there is much to be said about how clearcutting these old growth forests is akin to cutting off entire societies from communicating with one another. This, inherently, is an injustice to our environment and a setback at our attempt to become true stewards of the earth.
Suzanne introduced the importance of selective harvesting, a regenerative method that allows trees to grow back without trouble. While this is the best step forward, most companies in status quo prefer to clearcut entire forests because of the reduced cost.
One particularly harmful practice of clearcutting is the harvest of “mother trees” — big, old trees that are both the most ecologically valuable in the forest and the most profitable.
When corporations use clearcutting to profit from forests, they set back the local environment in five distinct ways. The first is the loss of biodiversity; the second is the loss of carbon, an element that’s important for sustaining life; next is a rise in water levels, a change in soil temperature, and an increased rate of decomposition.
For many people, it’s easier to focus on the problems that are directly in their sight instead of trying to grasp the bigger picture. Regretfully, this decision becomes a matter of survival in some situations: low-income families depend heavily on the sachet economy to get by, tech-challenged SMEs in rural areas still rely on paper documentation to keep track of their business, and the shift to renewable products can often be difficult because these items have a higher upfront cost.
We are challenged to think of the environment in two ways: first, to look beyond the concerns that plague our day to day activities; and second, to help others who are not as fortunate or as privileged as us get the access to look beyond as well.
There is a massive network of corporations, institutions, and individuals that enable the pace at which our climate is dying. It’s going to take a whole new level of mindfulness before we start changing how this works on a noticeable level — not just for ourselves and our loved ones, but for our communities as well.
Suzanne points out that humanity’s relationship with the environment has evolved significantly. On a continuum, foresting started off as an exploitative practice; but as we realized that we only had a finite amount of resources to work with, we made an attempt to regulate and then manage these harvests.
In the ‘80s and ‘90s, the US entered a period of science-based management. It was here, she explains, that the big leagues understood the connection between deforestation, climate change and big data.
But despite our progress, we have yet to reach a stage where we can accurately call ourselves stewards of the environment. This title calls for us to be proactive about the land and to hold ourselves accountable for climate change, not just as a present concern but also as a part of our intergenerational ethic.
This time, it’s not just a question of what your data is worth. How much is our collective data, as aspiring stewards of this planet, worth?
Sign up for the TARTLE Marketplace through this link here.
