A worldwide tree planting campaign is aiming to reach a total of 7 billion by the end of 2009 – that means just over one for everyone on the planet.
The United Nations says the campaign has exceeded expectations since it began in late 2006 with a goal of planting one billion within a year: two billion have been planted already. That means another 5 billion by late 2009.
A lot of the plantings so far have been by carried out governments — including 700 million by Ethiopia, 400 million by Turkey and 250 million by Mexico. That still leaves a lot still to be planted by companies and people like you and me.
Of course it leaves questions about how many survive — there are no checks to see if the saplings — like the one in the photo being planted by Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangaari Maathai (right) in 2006, grow to maturity.
Trees absorn carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, as they grow and release it when they rot or are burned. So planting trees can take a chunk out of global warming — a U.N. official says that 7 billion trees would, if they reach maturity, soak up as much greenhouse gases as Russia emits in a year.
Have you noticed more trees in your neighbourhood? Or have you planted any?
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5 comments so far
Thank you for profiling this UN major Tree Planting Campaign.
I made this Flowgram because I think architect William McDonough words, speak for the trees so brilliantly, I want to seed it far and wide, along with some pointers for tree-free paper choices.
McDonough said: “Imagine this design assignment: Design something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, accrues solar energy to make fuel, makes complex sugars and food, creates microclimates, changes color with the seasons and self replicates. Why don’t we knock that down and write on it…?”
“Paper Tigers, Tall Trees (new paper paradigm)” {2 mins}:
- Posted by Corrina McFarlanehttp://beta.flowgram.com/f/p.html#JDLH09 YTOIMX7O
There is more information about the Nobel Peace Prize and Maathai on nobelprize.org. I just watched an interesting video where Maathai says she is the mother of trees.
- Posted by MerciTree planting in Europe to off-set CO2 is based on a misunderstanding of trees. Most temporate trees will not reach maturity. They will die from disease or predation. Once they decay, or are burned, they release the carbon they absorbed during their life.
See more info here…
http://www.treenews.org.uk/sylva/can-pla nting-trees-save-the-planet
http://www.newint.org/features/2006/07/0 1/keynote/
- Posted by Ray HarringtonThe goal is fantastic and hopefully can be achieved.
- Posted by jeff-naturehillsLet’s hope the other governments of this world wake up to the environment before it’s too late. How could we get this scheme going in the Amazon, where this ‘lung’ of the Earth is quickly being attacked by the cancerous growth of illegal and legal land grabbers and tree clearers. The governments of the world should be assisting the Brazilian government to stop these ignorant scumbangs of further denigrating the Earth. Mind you not just in Brazil, there is the USA, Indonesia, the list goes on….Blessed be the planters of these trees.
- Posted by Conscientious Observer