Land Life Company through our children’s eyes 

Here at Land Life Company, we have a range of experts from various fields, and some of those experts are also parents. Once upon a pre-pandemic time, people brought their children to visit the office, and this often brought up interesting questions from the young, inquiring minds. 

Our head of marketing and communications shared some questions with us that her 5-year-old daughter, Bodil, asked about her work. And we thought they were worth sharing…and addressing.

 

“Why are trees so important?” 
A great question! Trees are to earth – and our survival – as lungs are to the human body. 

They produce oxygen for us to breathe, as well as improve air quality. Many wildlife species also depend on forests for their habitat, since trees provide shelter, food and protection. Another important quality is that they reduce erosion, which helps keep waterways clean and prevents flooding. In addition, trees remove large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2)  from the atmosphere, which is a key component to tackling climate change. 

“Do trees sleep in the winter?” 
In a way, yes, they do. Similar to how some animals hibernate to conserve energy and survive the colder months, trees become dormant during the winter. While in this phase, a tree’s growth and maintenance processes are put on hold until spring.

“Can trees still eat CO2 when they lose their pretty leaves?”
We are quite impressed to learn she asked this one. Clearly someone’s been listening closely to their mom talk about how trees absorb CO2. Let’s first break down how photosynthesis works:

• A tree gets thirsty just like people do, and their roots “drink” water from the soil, which also contains healthy minerals.  
• The water and minerals are transported from the roots up through the tree trunk toward the leafy branches. The green leaves have tiny mouths that open up during the day to breath in air, and this is how they inhale CO2 and exhale dioxyde (O2), also known as oxygen. This is opposite to what humans do. That’s another reason why trees are our friends, as they supply us with much-needed oxygen. 
• It gets even better. With the help of solar energy, green leaves are able to ‘glue’ (aka synthesize) the carbon into a string of carbons, better known as sugar. This is just like cooking on a stove, combining ingredients with water to make a delicious dish. These ‘solar-cooked’ sugars (produced in the process better known as photosynthesis) are assembled into “food” for trees to grow tall and strong.

The tiny mouths on leaves are called stomata, which actually means “mouth” in Greek. When a tree sheds its leaves and is without these little “mouths,” it cannot breath in the CO2. But that’s okay, because trees definitely make up for it once winter is over and tons of CO2-eating leaves are growing back again!  

We want to thank Bodil for her wonderful questions. We hope our explanations explain why Land Life Company believes there is no greater tool than a tree to gobble up carbon from the atmosphere, revitalize nature and tackle climate change.