the saddest part of the Notre Dame fire is that they will rebuild it. More than likely they will deforest more of the Amazon or Indonesia for the timber they need since it would be too expensive to harvest trees in France or even Europe. The part that burned was literally called “the forest” cause it was made up of timbers comprising an entire forest.
The wood for the soaring cathedral was first felled around 1160 to 1170, with some of it coming from trees thought to be 300 to 400 years old at the time they were chopped. That puts the oldest timber in the cathedral at nearly 1,300 years old.
Replacing those beams with comparable oak is simply not an option, said Bertrand de Feydeau, vice president of the preservation group Fondation du Patrimoine. Trees that supplied the roof’s frame came from primary forests—forests that are largely untouched by human activity, he said, according to the AP. He surmised that the huge trees associated with primary forests are gone too.
Notre Dame’s official website notes that even in the 12th century, when the cathedral was being built, human activity was already a concern for French forests, with urbanization and land clearing making it difficult to source wood large enough for the design of the cathedral.
Since then, the impact of human activity on primary forests has only become more pronounced.
Only 4% of Europe’s remaining woodland is primary forest, according to a study published last May, with none larger than 500 square kilometers outside of Russia or Northern Europe.
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