America 250 Forest Series: Old Growth Forests - Nature's Biotic Water Pump

About this event

Have you ever thought about where fresh water comes from? How it gets here? Yes... rainfall brings it; but do you know how and why rain falls across the breadth of the land? Or possibly- why it doesn't?

For decades now, we've been hearing considerable discussion of how greenhouse gases, particularly CO2, cause climate change. But what has been almost totally ignored is the effect that alteration of land cover has on our climate. It's not just about carbon, and never was. The greenhouse gas effect is just one half of the climate change story; land cover change is the other half, and just as important.

Keeping the land hydrated is crucial to terrestrial life, but that lesson has been learned the hard way. Many cultures have destroyed the very thing that makes the land habitable... forests. Places such as Egypt, Africa, Australia, and others, have become deserts because their forests were cut to the point where the hydrological cycle was disrupted; the soil dried out and could not recover on its own (ie, it became a "landscape trap"). That destructive behavior is still happening today in places like Canada, America, Chile, and the Amazon, putting those places also on the trajectory to desertification.

This film, together with "The Return of Old Growth Forests", explains the role that forests play in making Earth a place where life thrives.

Reception starts at 6pm with the film following shortly after at 6:30pm.