What’s going on?
As the UN Climate Action Summit drew to a close last week, the Plant-for-the-Planet App was released that makes it ridiculously easy for anyone to plant trees! 😎
Ok, what does this mean?
A 2015 study published in Nature, estimated that each year we cut down approximately 15 billion trees. Despite an admirable effort by nations, organisations and citizens to replant trees, every year we only manage to re-plant 9 billion trees, leaving a net loss of 6 billion trees.
Why should I care?
Trees sequester (or store) carbon. Often referred to as the Lungs of the Earth, forests remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and release oxygen back into the atmosphere. According to Plant-for-the-Planet, each tree sequesters 10 kg of CO2 per year. Approximately, half the dry weight of a tree’s biomass is carbon. Trees store carbon in their leaves, branches, stems, bark and roots. In fact, a growing tree captures more carbon - for example, in a 100-year project, 80% of sequestration would happen in the first 30 years. 😮 This is why global reforestation efforts could capture 25% of global annual carbon emissions.
Where do we need to be?
More than 1 Trillion trees. 🌳 So far, 13.6 billion trees have been planted worldwide since Plant-for-the-Planet was founded in 2007 by 9-year-old Felix Finkbeiner. Recent research suggests there are 1.7 billion hectares of land on which 1.2tn native tree saplings could naturally grow on. Other initiatives such as The Bonn Challenge suggest we need still need to restore 350 million hectares of deforested and degraded land by 2030 (roughly the size of India and requires about 3.5 billion trees).
What can I do about it?
Download the mobile app and start planting trees today! It’s available on Android and iOS or as a WebApp. Share it with your family, friends and work colleagues - in fact, challenge them to plant more trees than you (yes they have a leaderboard)! You can also gift trees - I know what I want for my birthday this year. 😜
Whether you are a government, a business, school, or an individual - you can plant trees in less than 5 mins, without leaving your couch! 😻