Friday, June 18, 2021

For the love of trees


Did you know the chemo drug taxol comes from Pacific yew trees? 

I don't know exactly which ones they were (redwoods in the picture) but I'll bet I hiked past some this week. I owe my life to these coastal forests, in a literal way. 

Trees have an especially hard time adapting to our quickly rising temps because it takes them so long to grow...they can't exactly migrate north. Losing species (of any kind) means we could miss out on discovering things like Taxol. Right now, 9% of tree species are in danger of extinction.

So call your reps, please, and tell them you care about climate change. That's the most important.

But also try to buy your paper from responsible sources...'cause clear-cutting ain't it. (I found this TP on Amazon that's Forest Stewardship Council certified, is better than our old TP, and costs about the same: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07KWNSTRR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_i_ZP1M7NRZXJW1H822DBBF?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 )

https://www.cbd.int/climate/ (scroll down to "forest diversity" handout)

https://www.cancer.gov/research/progress/discovery/taxol

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