After learning this, I googled "donate a tree" and "plant a tree" and was met with dozens of results for nonprofits, many of which I had never heard of.
Which of the nonprofits was the best run? Which was the most efficient at converting donations into trees? Where were the trees being planted to ensure the planting was protected and sustainable?
My idea is to create a simple campaign website, trilliontrees.org, that serves as a rallying call to plant trees and that compares and provides guidance on the myriad of nonprofits involved in planting trees.
Anyone interested to partner on this?
(1) https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/07/04/world/forests-capture-two-t...
How about a tree social network? A website/app that incentivices the person to plant a tree and adopt it as a pet. The person plants a tree, names it and takes a few photos. A profile is then created.
The person can find nearby trees to socialize. Some cute artwork may help engaging people. Snapchat-like filters could be used to "dress up" the tree, further increasing cuteness (and the engagement).
People keep score by how many trees they've planted, which gamifies the process.
This may sound crazy (and possibly it is) but hey, it may just work.
If you (or anyone else) like the idea, I'd be more than happy to help build it, with the condition that it should be open source. Email is on profile.
ETA: Open source condition
You can discover the email address of each tree using the map here: http://melbourneurbanforestvisual.com.au/
The Future is here!
- I think it should feel more like a game than a social network. More like Pokemon Go than Facebook. I'd gamify as much as possible.
- Some people want to plant trees and are able to do so. Others aren't. Maybe they don't have the time, or they live in a concrete jungle. I think the project should focus on both segments.
- Those who can't plant, whatever the reason, may want to donate to projects that would plant. And those who can plant, may need guidance (where to buy seeds? where to plant? what to plant? etc). This website should facilitate both cases, as much as possible.
- Let's say that for each dollar donated, one tree is planted. That number (trees "remotely" planted by the person) should be made public, as some sort of virtual currency.
- Ideally, trees planted as proxy (via donation) would be photographed and shown to the donor. Unfortunately that's not practical.
- I think each person should have their own profile (with their own name, picture) and they could create a "sub-profile" for each tree. Not sure about this. But having a separate profile (login) per tree would actually be a problem for those planting lots of trees.
- (Or, using a better analogy for "sub-profile", people = Github profile, trees = Github repositories)
- This "sub-profile" could be similar to a Facebook group. You can post "life events" of the tree, photos, comments, etc. You can browse other people's trees (and their own, actual profile as well).
- Each tree planted by the users may have a location at the world map (provided by the user). This way we can show nearby trees and fellow "tree planters".
- We can have mini-games like "visit/photograph/'collect' trees near you". Similar (to a certain point) to Pokemon Go. When completing such mini-games the person is rewarded with the virtual currency.
- People may use the virtual currency with their own trees or others' trees. Not sure actually what they could spend it on.
- I really like the idea on sister comment from @secfirstmd. I think integrating related concepts further improves the platform.
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Also, something important to remember, is that this website alone likely wouldn't get anywhere near OP's objective of 1 trillion trees, but it certainly can make an impact on awareness, or at the very least increase people's contact with nature (even in large cities).
And, of course, if you can find a way to make an economy around buying trees without destroying them, you'll have the most success. I've been trying to think of a good way to make an economy around that, but haven't come up with anything good. Maybe eco-tourism is the best option?
Send me a message, I'd be glad to chat more about this.
Is this actually a thing? I always imagined tree cutting to be noisy, heavy, difficult and fairly non-subtle... stealing a tree seems like a really difficult task to pull off
Although I guess if you have a large forest, you’d have a lot of ground to cover and lot of coverage..
Oh man the world is far worse than something like stealing trees for lumber, people are stealing entire BEACHES!
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/07/13/628894815/epis...
Transcript: https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?stor...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion_Tree_Campaign
Looks like the UN handed the program to 'Plant for the Planet' (Germany) in 2011.
'https://www.plant-for-the-planet.org/en/home
It'd be fantastic to see this organized nationwide in the U.S. ... and promoted as part of the campaign.
P.S. This video, 'Planting Bare Root Trees With A Dibble', shows how very easy it can be to plant a seedling. Anyone can learn it in a short time.
This wouldn't be the first time people have banded together for "Emergency Conservation Work" (FDR administration 5 billion trees):
https://treesource.org/news/lands/ccc-tree-planting/
I've had decent success planting things after amending the soil where the rootball is expected to be. This involves removing some of the clay-like soil and replacing with both seasoned and fresh compost. Planting a trillion trees within a rather urgent window of time may not be eligible for this sort of micromanagement (plus the root system of a tree will be quite large), but I still like the idea of spending free time doing this sort of thing.
You can actually make small but stable profit from buying land and converting into forest.
> Priority will be given to those who intend to plant a forest in the so-called ecological corridors, in areas threatened by water erosion, in areas adjacent to inland waters and forests, in areas with a slope of more than 12 degrees. Also, those who have land for afforestation in voivodships with a forest cover of less than 30% will get points. Depending on the species composition of the crop and the previously mentioned criteria, the amount of support can range from PLN 4,984 to PLN 7,624 per hectare. In addition, payment is possible for fencing of crops.
Assigned budget 2014-2020 for this project is 300 milion euro.
I believe there are similar schemes in other EU countries.
Link in Polish: http://www.lasy.gov.pl/pl/informacje/aktualnosci/jak-zdobyc-...
https://pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasy_w_Polsce
Additionaly areas of older forrests (over 80 years old) increased by 50% from 1946. There is also a policy of making forrests more ecologically diverse.
"Here we analyse 35 years’ worth of satellite data and provide a comprehensive record of global land-change dynamics during the period 1982–2016. We show that—contrary to the prevailing view that forest area has declined globally—tree cover has increased by 2.24 million km2 (+7.1% relative to the 1982 level). This overall net gain is the result of a net loss in the tropics being outweighed by a net gain in the extratropics."
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0411-9
Human, an fascinating animal yet with such a high opinion of itself.
"They further report that much of the new growth came about due to efforts by humans (such as reforestation efforts in China and parts of Africa) and because of global warming—warmer temperatures have raised timberlines in some mountainous regions, and allowed forests to creep into tundra areas. Other areas of new tree growth resulted from large farm abandonments in places like Russia and the U.S. The researchers report that their calculations showed that human activities have directly caused approximately 60 percent of new global tree growth. They suggest their technique for monitoring tree cover could be used to predict tree cover changes in the future due to global warming."
So reforestation efforts led by humans has contributed to this change. AND global warming caused by humans has caused the tundra to warm up enough that forests have moved up there.
That's not quite what's happening of course. Nature will adapt to whatever changes, and that may bring things back to the way they were. Or it may take off in a completely different direction - possibly one unsuitable for us.
It would take a serious amount of carbon for humans to do this task for mother nature - we need trucks to transport the seeds and soil to where we want them planted, we need to grow food so the human can eat to get energy to plant the seeds.
The best thing we can do is let mother nature grow. Build up instead of out and stop deforesting for farm land.
The trend to argue against helpful ideas is contrary to the goals of improving the world. Maybe every idea isn't perfect. Maybe no idea will solve all of the problem. But if the top 100 ideas each is completed with 1% efficiency, maybe that will all add up. Maybe we'll improve things enough to let better ideas come to fruition. So maybe we should stop criticizing, and start acting.
One can try to search for corresponding nonprofits with https://CharityNavigator.org. For example, there are
https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summar...
https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summar...
and more...
But also plant solar panels. Conservation, buy or lease pieces of rainforest that need protecting. Attract the money from carbon tax, emission rights, companies and governments that want to greenwash their reputation. I have been inspired to work on this ever since seeing [1] when I was 10 years old. My grandfather bought a forest and walked me through it when I was a 4 year old boy. It instilled the idea of stewardship for our planet. And then there is the (mythical) 500 year old tree story about New College, Oxford to inspire [2]. A trillion trees is not enough, there are 3 trillion already, we need to double that [3]. When I go on walks I'll check up on all the trees my mom or dad and I talked about. I'll visit them, rather then their graves.
[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTvYh8ar3tc
[2]https://cherwell.org/2013/10/08/cameron-in-tory-conference-o...
[3] https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thomas_Crowther/publica...
LMK if this is interesting at all, anyone is free to partner or run with it - whatever to help the climate
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/05/china-plant-fore...
- Gather seeds from native species in your area.
- place 2-3 large seeds or 5-10 smaller seeds in a pot. I use old 1l milk containers.
- Put the pots outside, a terrace or balcony will do.
- As soon as the seeds sprout, find a spot to plant. Can be natural (prairie, forest, ..) or not (parks, roundabouts, parking lots, yards,medians,...). Just ask for permission if planting on private property.
- Go back during dry spells or heatwaves and water them.
- Profit?
If you're interested in helping out with their efforts it might be worth reaching out to trillion tree campaign. Their website really needs some work, but they've already done a lot of good work with some really big organizations. No need to re-do work when there is something already out there that you could potentially help expand on.
Or they 'll plant too many trees in their backyard, which they will have to cut as soon as they grow too much, because it's annoying/inconvenient
Land is cleared to make room for cattle grazing and for crops used to feed animals.
ie- meat
EDIT: grammar
80% of forrests in Poland is under management of Lasy Panstwowe - state-owned company with political reach.
In the exuberance of ecological conservation and all that, we must not overlook and override what nature would have done. For instance, one shouldn't plant a water sucking tree where it wouldn't naturally occur, and damage the balance.
They've been working for twenty years, already planted 150 million trees, and most importantly, train people in Africa to create forest gardens while lifting themselves out of poverty.
Now they plant eight trees per day for me too. <3
A few examples:
http://www.gatrees.org/reforestation/ordering-information/ https://www.tn.gov/agriculture/forests/seedlings.html
With varying local rules and regulations, plant species adaptability, invasive vs non-invasive species debate raging on, it would be great to have a website which gives you info. about the local areas in the range of 100 miles where one can go and plant trees with this information readily available;
I would go one step ahead and propose to also have the saplings shipped or sold either from this website or have distribution centers/farms closer to the region where these saplings can be collected; these centers would be similar to your regular Home Depots etc. where you would have all the information readily available; One can also pay a subscription fees of 5$/month to have the farm take care of these saplings until it becomes self sufficient.
Before someone asks about how we would raise the initial capital for these distribution centers is thru carbon tax/federal/state funds.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-scienc...
Tell them they can make their place beautiful and fight climate change.
I planted 6 evergreen bushes and 5 trees in just the past few months, and my yard is quite small.
Encourage people to plant trees for previous generations of family members. And have small in memory of markers for each tree.
Among other projects they've already released climatechoices.co
Ahead of my time!
It plants trees from its ad revenues.
The important thing for me is to make this FOR profit and to give a QUALITY guide on how to basically "steal" this idea, assuming I am able to execute it effectively. Then, the competition can begin. As much as I hate capitalism, you can't deny it's ability to get people to work really hard. In my opinion, that's what needs to happen. To hell with the non-profit sector, for now.
If you have ideas or would just like to discuss this a bit, feel free to do so by replying, or getting in touch. My personal email is j.horne2796@gmail.com
