Ethiopia sets tree planting record

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[url]https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ethiopia-trees-fight-climate-change_n_5d44545fe4b0aca3411ced82[/url]

Ethiopia Planted A Record-Setting Number Of Trees To Fight Climate Change Effects
The country plans to plant a total of 4 billion trees by October as part of an effort to reverse decades of deforestation.

David Knowles

The government of Ethiopia announced Monday that its citizens had planted 353 million trees in a single day as part of an effort to reverse decades of deforestation and help fight climate change.

It is believed to be the largest one-day mass planting in history, exceeding an effort in 2017 in India in which 1.5 million volunteers planted 66 million trees in just over 12 hours.

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Ethiopia has joined 20 other African nations in a pledge to restore almost 400,000 square miles of forest on the continent. According to the United Nations, forest cover in Ethiopia has declined from 35 percent in the last century to just 4 percent today. The 426,000-square-mile country in the Horn of Africa plans to plant a total of 4 billion trees by the beginning of the rainy season in October. With a population of about 100 million people (including children), that goal would require every person in the country to plant at least 40 seedlings.


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Government workers and students were given the day off to participate.

Earlier this month, a study published in the journal Science calculated that planting a forest nearly double the size of the United States could save the planet from the worst consequences of global warming. Those new forests would be capable of storing about 205 metric tons of carbon, which is roughly two-thirds of the excess carbon human beings have added to the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution.

Reforestation has increasingly come to be seen as a means for addressing what scientists have begun calling a climate crisis caused by human carbon emissions.


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In the United Kingdom, for example, government officials have estimated that the country will need to plant 1.5 billion trees if it hopes to reach its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

But setbacks to reforestation goals abound. In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro has reversed government protections of the Amazon rainforest, opening the region to development. Since Bolsonaro took office seven months ago, 1,330 square miles of forest cover have been lost, the New York Times reported.

Fifty years ago, the Amazon forest was itself as big in area as the lower 48 U.S. states. Since that time, it has been reduced by 16 percent, largely due to logging, PRI reported. Excess carbon in the atmosphere has also made equatorial forests less viable.

Whether tree planting can stay ahead of deforestation will help determine whether people can avert the worst consequences of global warming.

So, let's see if other nations can outpace them in number of trees planted in a day, breaking the record again. If more nations get in on this, it'll help the environment, and it's the kind of dick waving contest that's productive.

[Mecha82]

Seems good. We here in Finland tend to replant trees to replace ones that were cut down to make sure that there are trees to cut since wood and paper industry is so huge part of country's economy that not doing so would be stupid thing to do.

[FaxModem1]

Seems good. We here in Finland tend to replant trees to replace ones that were cut down to make sure that there are trees to cut since wood and paper industry is so huge part of country's economy that not doing so would be stupid thing to do.

The US could use more practices like that. We have nature reserves, but we could work towards increasing them.

[CmdrKing]

At this point I worry more that we’re going to start clear cutting them out of spite

[Riedquat]

There isn't much planting going on in the UK (people just seem to clamour for more building instead, sadly) but at least what's used commercially is from commercially grown timber, so that gets replanted when used like any other crop.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Wood is a renewable resource. But like all resources it can be plundered.

[clearspira]

Wood is a renewable resource. But like all resources it can be plundered.

The problem with wood is that it is hard to produce on an industrial scale as a tree can only grow so fast. So yes, in theory in its a limitless resource, but it runs into the lack of capitalist patience quite quickly.

[Robovski]

Forrest commission land in the UK (at least when I was still living in Scotland 5 years ago) has a large back log of pulp wood trees because of the drop in price and demand was not as projected. Hence a lot of trees in Scotland just not being cleared and replanted. Now, seems to me they could turn that into a carbon capture scheme if they cut down the trees and bury them and grow new trees.

[Admiral X]

I'm more worried the trees will just die in the harsh climate.

[ProfessorDetective]

Wood is a renewable resource. But like all resources it can be plundered.

The problem with wood is that it is hard to produce on an industrial scale as a tree can only grow so fast. So yes, in theory in its a limitless resource, but it runs into the lack of capitalist patience quite quickly.

Which makes you think one of the major mills would do a recycling program of some sort. 1) It'd create jobs, 2) it'd probably qualify for some kind of subsidy or write-off, and 3) they'd basically have people buy their product TWICE!