They say it is always safe to talk about the weather when we are out and about, carrying on conversations, as we do.
Maybe that’s because there’s always something a little strange we can say about it. You know. “It sure has been cold lately,” we say. Of course, it is cold. It is February.
Anyway, the weather has all sorts of spots we can talk about. Take lightning as an example. We tend to think of lightning as dangerous, but also as dramatic and brief. A flash. A crack. Then it’s gone.
But it turns out lightning leaves a much longer footprint than we ever imagined. In the way of trees.
You know how I feel about scientists. Well. Those scientists now estimate that lightning kills 320 million trees every year. That’s right. I said 320 million.
The number is startling on its own. But it gets heavier. Those lightning-blasted lost trees release roughly one billion tons of carbon dioxide annually. That is a figure comparable to emissions from wildfires. All of this results from bolts of electricity we rarely pause to consider once the storm has passed.
It makes you rethink the old question: If a tree falls in the forest, does anyone hear it?
Yes. The planet does.
Lightning doesn’t spread evenly across the world. Like, this isn’t happening in Belmont, Ohio. No. Instead, tropical forests bear the brunt of it. We all know that tall trees become natural lightning rods. They absorb strike after strike until their internal systems fail. These forests, which are often called the lungs of the Earth, are losing trees to lightning like crazy.
And climate change complicates the story further. Warmer air and higher humidity mean more lightning. More lightning means more dead trees. More dead trees mean more carbon released. It’s an endless loop that feeds itself. Most of us never even know about this. But it happens all the time.
Nature has its own forces. Powerful forces. They are ancient. But they are increasingly amplified by the world we’ve altered. Unfortunately.
Maybe the real lesson here isn’t fear, but instead, awareness. It would really help if all people could recognize that even the systems of the planet are shifting. Forests are more fragile than they look.
And that every flash of lightning is part of a much larger story we’re still learning how to figure out. Heaven knows, I hope we can figure it out.
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“Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.” — Gary Snyder
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“The Earth is what we all have in common.” — Wendell Berry
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“We need the Earth. It does not need us.” — Polly Goggles Me
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