Of Trees and Fungi
Trees are pretty awesome right, aren't they? I mean, Solarpunks kinda do love their trees as an aesthetic - but those things are actually pretty fucking cool and funnily enough we know still so very little about trees. I really mean that. Given how long we as a humans existed around trees, we actually know surprisingly little about them and how they work. We are only now figuring this out.
Originally we thought, for example, that tree roots just went down into the ground. Like deep down. Now we know that a lot of them stay near the surface.
Originally we also thought that tress were just on their own. Now know that they are using their root networks to not only communicate, but also share nutrients with each other. Not only on their own, that is, but also with the help of fungi, that apparently help to connect whole forest systems with each other.
Trees also are obviously this big thing when it comes to carbon capture. Whenever those stupid big companies will go: "Oh, we are developing carbon capture technology!" I am like: "Oh, I already developed that. Let me introduce you to my technology. I call it TREE!!!!"
Never the less: There is also this annoying thing going on where companies (and influencers) go out to randomly plant trees to make a positive CO2 impact, which is... Not how things are working. Because often enough those trees are planted in places and circumstances, that they are not going to live, let alone florish. Hence the positive impact is at times not as big as they keep telling you - and at other times just outright negated because of the trees dying.
And in a way I do think, we should not only plant trees, but also make sure they have a "good life", even though we do not know how much really they are able to suffer.
So... Yeah, tree's are pretty rad. We should take proper care of them, right?
