Ecology is the study of ecological or environmental systems. In common parlance, it's also known as the economy of nature. Ecology is more than just random ideas or morals that one learns in a classroom or a book but a better way of looking at the world. It lays emphasis on understanding of how every naturally occurring component including plants, animals, humans, air, water, land etc fit together and work with each other. Ecology studies how each component influences and is influenced by the other components.

We understand ecology better now due to the wide-spread public awareness on environment issues as compared to three decades ago when industrial pollution and deforestation were thriving and yet unknown to the masses. Times have come to change and ecology and its preservation have become vitally important. While ecology deals with every component found in nature, one of the biggest contributors in the maintenance of this planet are the plants.

Plants evolved from millions of decades of evolution. The first plants on Earth were a form of algae, blue -green in colour, which lived in the oceans around 3.4 billion years ago. Then came land-based plants and the trees another some hundred million years later. Trees became essential to the planet as more plants ensured more oxygen levels thus reducing levels of dangerous green house gas, carbon dioxide. More oxygen meant animals and insects could thrive thus paving the way for the evolution of the animals. Thousands of trees and shrubs evolved and become extinct in a natural process. Fast forward to the 21st century, many trees are now threatened by de-forestation as well as farming. Trees and plants are essential to Earth as all of the life on the planet depends on their existence. The green rainforests are the respiratory system of the world providing oxygen and keeping a balance in the ecosystem. They take in carbon dioxide (CO2) and generate oxygen that is utilised by every living thing on this planet.

Plant life around the world is now threatened by human activities risking the very survival of trees and plants many of which are listed as endangered. The fine environmental balance is now endangered and unless we take steps to reduce our carbon footprint, we may disrupt the evolutionary pattern and alter the ecology, like we know it.