Humans and Trees: A Shared History
Trees have been around much, much longer than people have.
The first real species of tree was called Archaeopteris, and it evolved approximately 370 million years ago. Over many years, other species of tree followed. At one point, before the continents broke apart, almost all of the earth’s land mass was covered by trees. Trees helped encourage the evolution of new and more complex species of animals, by changing oxygen into carbon dioxide and by forming new habitats that encouraged the growth of biodiversity.
It’s no wonder, then, that trees have played such a vital role in the human imagination. Trees can live much longer than humans-they are taller than us, and seem older and sometimes wiser than us.In virtually every culture, trees are an important part of mythology and religion. For example, the ancient Greeks believed that trees were guarded by nymphs known as dryads.
The dryads were not immortal. Instead, their lives were linked to the trees they protected. They had gorgeous female figures-but you wouldn’t want to anger them. In one Greek myth, a man named Erysichthon cut down a sacred tree and killed the nymph that inhabited it. As a punishment, the goddess Ceres caused him to be constantly starving, no matter how much he ate, until eventually he ate himself.
In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil was the sacred ash tree that connected the heavens, the earth and the underworld. Also, the first people were said to have been fashioned by Odin from trees: the first man was made out of an ash tree, and the first woman was made from elm. In Celtic mythology, the Druids worshipped in groves of oak.
In addition to being objects of fascination and reverence, trees also met practical needs, providing us with fuel, food, shelter, medicine and other products.
Aspirin was originally derived from willow bark, and some people still prefer to use willow bark for pain relief and fever reduction today because it seems to be gentler on the stomach. In ancient times, the bark of oak trees was used to tan leather and to create a brown pigment that could be used to dye clothing. Oak galls, irregular growths caused by insect infestation, were also used to make ink.
Ancient civilizations were by no means perfect stewards of the environment-as populations expanded and human needs grew more demanding, deforestation and environmental degradation became problems for many ancient cultures as well.
These problems have only gotten worse over time. For example, today trees only cover 29.6% of the earth’s surface area. As fanciful as the old myths and stories were, they helped even “civilized” people understand that they were connected to nature.
As we obtained the skills and technology to dominate the natural world, we lost that sense of connection. However, we still need trees to survive-it’s just not as obvious as it was a long time ago, when almost everyone had to go out and harvest tree products to cook, heat and build.
Trees still produce oxygen for us to breathe and help protect the environment, undoing some of the harm we do to our world every day. So, the next time you walk in a forest, make sure to remember everything that forest does for you-and be thankful for it!
Tags: archaeopteris, carbon, Forest, oxygen, Tree, yggdrasil
This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 10:19 am and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.