Why We Are Forbidden to Cut Down Our Forest

If we hear a word “forest”, we absolutely think about so many trees grew in a certain area. Well, it’s not a wrong statement but we will tell you the closest one. Forest can be defined as large area of land covered with a tree. There are many types of forest in this world such as rain forest, taiga, etc. Without looking at their types, all of them have great influence towards human life.

However, nowadays, if we take attention on mass media, we will know that our forest has been damaged by irresponsible persons who like cutting down the trees without replanting those areas. They only think about themselves. They really never think the consequence happened after when they started to cut off the trees on forest. In Indonesia itself, the deforestation has touched 1.17 million hectares every year. It’s a big number until Indonesia is recorded with ‘the fastest deforestation nation in the world’ on Guinness Book of The Record. Seriously, it’s not a good title for us.

With cutting down the trees in forests, it brings so many bad impacts, not only to human life but also other living things like plants and animals. There are reasons why we are forbidden to do that action. Firstly, forests produce large amounts of oxygen and absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide which can help regulate the gases in Earth’s atmosphere. Trough photosynthesis trees produce the most important gas for living things: oxygen (02). They convert carbon dioxide released by living things into oxygen so that people can breathe.

Secondly, forest can control temperature of the earth and provide us rain. Forest can act like natural water pump. They give us a shade to hide from a sun and also they keep water to be used again by us.

Thirdly, forests provide us important products like woods, medicine, food, and energy source. Woods are used for us for making house, furniture, and paper. Illness like malaria and cancer are using forest products such as rosy periwinkle and kina to make medicine. Forest also provides foods like coconuts, marquise and energy sources that come from woods and coal (made from ancient plants).

Fourthly, if we cut down forest, it will make animal and plants lose their natural habitat. They will disappear from the surface because they have lost their homes, foods and their role on web of life.

The last is if the cut down of trees still happens, it has no doubt that natural disasters will be happened in the future because there’s no more shelter that can hold the soil from being erosion. Flood and drought will happen because earth has lost their trees that usually absorb and keep the water under ground and also lost their shield when the rainy season come. The earth’s temperature becomes increase because there’s no more leaves doing their photosynthesis that change CO2 into O2 in the process.

Fortunately, there are things that every one of us can do to reduce the speed of deforestation and other environmental problems. All we have to do is remember and practice also the "3R", Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Reduce can be done by turn off the electronic equipment when we are not using it and repair broken stuff especially made from wood so that we can reduce our spending and reduce the garbage. Reuse act is simply done by borrow and share books or furniture we don’t want to other people who need it. And also we can reuse the paper bags and lunch container for carrying good and keep our food for example to school. Besides it can reduce the garbage, we can stay healthy.

The last R is Recycle. The examples of this act are using recycling paper made by ourselves or buy it at store and fixing our flat tires. We believe that we can save and protects our forest together starting from simply things and from our will. By keeping our forest, human life and other living things can live healthy, freely and happily.

Jakarta Langganan Banjir

Sudah bukan rahasia umum lagi jika Jakarta jadi langganan banjir dari tahun ke tahun. Entah asalnya dari Jakarta sendiri ataupun yang paling umum ya, dari air buangan dari daerah sekitarnya yang mampir lewat Jakarta. Hampir setiap tahun warga ibukota disibukkan oleh banjir yang masuk ke daerah-daerah tempat tinggal dan kantor-kantor mereka. Padahal akibat banjir tersebut, banyak kerugian-kerugian yang mau tidak mau alias terpaksa yang harus diterima mereka.

Memang, banjir yang jadi langganan Jakarta tiap tahunnya bukan sepenuhnya kesalahan warga ibukota itu sendiri. Penyebab banjir sebenarnya sudah ada dalam tubuh Jakarta itu sendiri sejak dulu. Jika kita amati, posisi Jakarta memang lebih rendah dari daerah-daerah sekitarnya. Hal tersebut sebagai akibat dari permukaan tanah yang turun secara terus menerus karena aktivitas manusia, yaitu pengambilan air tanah yang berlebihan, yang kemudian diperparah oleh pembangunan-pembangunan gedung bertingkat di atasnya. Alhasil, tanah pun tak kuasa menahan beban di atasnya sehingga tanahnya turun ke bawah. Para ahli Geologi memberi julukan “Land Subsidence” untuk peristiwa ini.

Selain penurunan tanah, yang notabene memang kejadian alamiah, banjir Jakarta juga disebabkan oleh kesalahan pola aktivitas warga ibukota atau singkatnya kesalahan manusianya itu sendiri. Lho, kok bisa?

Sekarang, mari kita lihat lingkungan Jakarta. Dari ujung ke ujung yang terlihat adalah sampah. Ya, sampah-sampah berserakan di sepanjang jalan. Entah di darat bahkan di sunga-sungai ibukota, yang baunya, ya ampun… sangat memualkan. Sangat memprihatinkan memang. Seolah-olah mereka berlomba-lomba menghiasi keindahan sudut Jakarta. Padahal, banyak bahaya yang bersembunyi dari tumpukan sampah yang menjulang ke angkasa tersebut seperti bau yang semerbak, pencemaran lingkungan, dan jika memang disengaja dibuang ke sungai maka sungai tersebut akan mengalir tidak lancar. Jika sungai sudah tidak mengalir lancar seperti biasanya akibat sumbatan sampah, maka bisa dibayangkan apa yang terjadi jika musim hujan dan air kiriman dari daerah-daerah sekitarnya datang berbondong-bondong. Padahal, ada sekitar tiga belas sungai yang melintasi di ibukota Jakarta. Akibatnya, tentu saja sangat fatal. Bayangan menjadi kenyataan menyedihkan.

Walaupun dam-dam air dan kanal-kanal pencegah banjir telah dibangun, tetap saja kurang mampu untuk meminimalisir banjir yang setiap tahunnya menghantui ibukota. Perlu tindakan yang nyata dan menyeluruh oleh komponen-komponen warga ibukota. Warga ibukota tidak bisa menyalahkan pemerintah saja yang dianggap tidak becus menangani maslah banjir. Pemerintah sudah berupaya maksimal untuk menyelesaikannya. Dari tindakan warga sendirilah yang mampu meminimalisir datangnya banjir dan kerugian-kerugian yang ikut dibelakangnya.

Akankah ini berhasil? Tentu bisa jika ada niat tulus dari warga ibukota sendiri untuk merubahnya. Sangat diperlukan kerjasama dan kepedulian dari mereka sendiri untuk dapat menghindar dari banjir langganan yang mendera mereka tiap tahunnya. Tentu mereka tidak mau mengalaminya tiap tahun bukan?