Our Planet’s Lungs

Plant a Million

I love highlighting where people are planting trees, adding to the lungs of our planet.  We can all do this!  Start a neighborhood project, make it a fundraiser for a school or charity somehow… instead of running or walking for your cause and paying by the mile, pledge for every tree planted.  Let’s all get out planting trees!

Where I reside there used to be much greater forest cover.  I recently discovered an ancestor of mine made the trek in a covered wagon to near where I reside, and I thought I was the only one of extended family ever in my region for hundreds of miles.  He and his family came before me, and viewed a paradise.   Turns out I actually previously lived on land he owned, as he owned much of what is today an entire city.  This ancestor saw thick forests vast and wide where there is now a scattering of trees and brush.  Over a century ago, those forests were logged by my ancestor and his colleagues and friends, to build cities and workplaces, and thus those forests have disappeared, with only a tiny region replanted at that time over one hundred years passed.    I don’t begrudge anyone in the 1800’s taking what they thought was aplenty upon the planet, but I mourn what left us in those years.  What existed before for thousands of years was gone in a few years time, and the green spot that would have existed in satellite photos today is today mainly brown, especially when not in the rainy winter season.  Spot by spot, the earth changes….

And spot by spot we can change it back.  We can begin to replant as some already are doing, and the enormity of the replanting needed should not paralyze us from action.   There are probably about 310 million of us in the US, and if only 10% of us could plant a tree a year, that would be 31 million trees planted!  The whole of Russia to Europe may be approaching a population of one billion….and if only 5% of those could plant a tree, that would be about 50 million trees planted.  What if a greater percentage was in a position to afford a single seedling tree and plant it and watch it take hold over a few years time?  What if more than 100 million trees could be planted?  What if many people planted a hundred over the course of a year or two….What if a billion trees could be planted?

What changes we can make upon the planet simply by planting a tree!  Let’s start a trend….it is now vogue to say you’ve planted a tree, in a park (with your city OK), in a yard, in a school, in a forest land with official reforestry effort, for a neighbor, with a child, on a reality show.  Better yet, make it one likely to survive on natural regional rainfall.  Go plant a tree!

Here’s another “Million Trees” effort, in Indiana, US of all places, someplace many of us might think of as quite green, yet intent on becoming greener still:  www.plantamillion.org

Biodiversity and the Rainforests

Rainforest

Involve the people.  We are still learning what balance is possible, and what balance is already occurring in our rainforests.  When local villagers are allowed to contribute to forest management and decisions, the you’d-think-it-would-be-obvious happens:  the forests surrounding them show greater biodiversity and health.  This is the resulting conclusion of a study from the University of Michigan.  Locations of study numbered 84, with the amount of tree species seen as the indicator of health.  And the benefit to the local people was an increased number and quantity of resources needed for food and building, among other things.

“There are substantial disagreements among scientists about whether it’s possible to achieve both economic and ecological benefits together from forests, but little work to understand conditions that might lead to this,” comments Lauren Persha, one of the study’s authors.  “Our study is one of very few that has been able to do this kind of analysis in a systematic way across a large number of cases and countries.”

I am struck by a couple of things…Firstly, that using the rainforest actually increased biodiversity!   The Earth’s forests are responding to the wide culling of resources in a local area by generating more quantity and diversity….a less-extreme and more in-balance example of what happens after forest fire.  And secondly, giving power to the people is a great thing, no matter the location on the planet.  When directed and encouraged to self manage, just as we lead our children, people the world over tend to do the right thing.  And the planet responds in kind.

There is hope yet.

Biodiversity and sustainable resource use may co-exist in tropical forests.

Supermoon

Supermoon over the Lincoln Memorial

Just wow.  It circles us daily, we hardly give it much thought, and every once in a while it screams at us.  Dear Moon, you are bald but beautiful, iridescent when you choose, assuredly awe-inspiring the world over, responsible for our tides and axis tilt and apparently a necessity to life here on Earth.  An interesting bit of research here ( http://bit.ly/g37Y6Q Comins, University of Maine) attests to it, in addition to numerous educational shows these days.  Dear Moon…..Thank You for being.

Teaching Our Children

Climbing the Planet's Truths vs Seeking Vision

I am surrounded by healthy, playing children in my neighborhood, tens of them on my block alone.  I have my own child and my own nieces and nephews, and their hopes and dreams and joys fill their eyes and overflow to touch my heart.  At what point do we burden them with the heaviness of our planet’s challenges?  At what point do we begin to lessen our censorship of what they hear, lessen our re-wording of what they experience?  At what point do we let them make their own conclusions?

My daughter sees a quick flash of Japan’s devastation, and I quickly temper that with “people are now rebuilding, it will be rebuilt, don’t worry.  Yes, sometimes there are earthquakes and tsunamis, and we just pay attention to make sure we keep safe.  We also send Japan food and help to rebuild, just as they would do for us if we needed.”    Right or wrong coaching?  She knows our general earthquake plan, but I shield her still from the blood and gore of what has happened.  I am definitely not explaining to her yet that the earth has shifted on its axis, and in trying to explain that Japan moved several inches I only baffled her.  The world is so solid to her still.  Am I wrong to censor her at age six?  Would it be wrong at age seven?  Eight?  Ten?

I have seen the value in my own life of belief.  When we believe, the world responds to our belief, and by that we usually mean people, and perhaps our pets.   People respond to our confidence by following, evidenced by the hoards of celebrities owning confidence and thus owning millions of followers, talent or no talent.  Belief seems their greatest asset and is responsible for their fame and fortune.   And people respond to our expressed fears or outward cowardice by either seeing us as weak or even outright attack.  There exists quasi-science (and perhaps now real reproducible science, haven’t checked lately) that shows that even plants may be reacting to our general vibe, our attitude, our intentions.  If people, pets, and perhaps plants react to our inner vibe, can the rest of the world, our natural world, begin to respond to our desires and visions of it being in balance and whole?  If we confidently envision the world healed and a working ecosystem, will it respond?  And if it does, will it respond in a timeline that includes us?

Australia’s Zero Carbon Plan

Australia is setting out to be a trailblazer, a worldwide leader in renewable energy, and what a plan they have designed!  With a combination of wind, solar and hydro power, the plan takes into account times when one type is not as fruitful, and they’ve also taken into account re-employing their nation’s coal workers into the new future.  For this effort, they were awarded the Mercedes Benz Australian Environmental Research Award:

May the world be so inspired as Australia seeks to be a “first mover” !

www.zerocarbonplan.org

International Year of Forests and Rwanda

The world over we are starting to see more care of forest and habitat, more programs of sustainability brought to the local people of various parts of the world, good that is growing and spreading and propagating.  Around the planet I stand in awe at various million-tree planting efforts, a beautiful example of human desire to effect change and get an amazing act accomplished.  Here I now highlight the effort taking place in connection with the International Year of Forests, bringing people into reverence for the forest wealth that surrounds  them, re-establishing damaged forest, and ensuring their future protection of that forest, a bit of our planet’s lungs.

Here we look at Rwanda, a beautiful place saddled with so much history, political and natural.  This is a country rising from its ashes, and the latest example is brought to us by Dan Rugabira.  Mr Rugabira, Programme Coordinator of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation’s Forestry Department, states “Our most important partner are the population, the people who are living in the forest.”  He highlights the relationship held by Rwanda’s population with the rainforest.   Mr Rugabira is helping in the effort for the people of Rwanda to understand their connection to the forest, how it sustains them, the reasons for them to feel pride for it and to work to sustain it.  “The forest is really in their daily life, from morning to evening. For today’s use but also for the generations to come.”  Rwanda has had much forest damage from various avenues including its civil war, and now its people can be seen taking ownership of their forest, actually growing the seedlings themselves and taking charge of reforestation one village at a time.  Here in this video can be noted this growing and enduring relationship between the people and their forest, understanding they must preserve and not destroy, the sense of growing pride, literally and figuratively.  The International Year of Forests 2011 is changing the planet, one village at a time:

Olivia Bouler Changes the World

A young lady has become an example to grown-ups around the world with her effort to help. 

http://www.oliviabouler.net/

In one year she has raised nearly $200,000 US for the Gulf tragedy, and the score continues to grow.   Quoted from her website: “Aspiring ornithologist, artist, and saxophone player, Olivia wept when she heard about the oil spill in the Gulf Coast, a place where she spent many vacations with her cousins and grandparents who live in Louisiana and Alabama. Knowing birds were going to suffer, she had to take action.  ”

Olivia drew and donated 500 original drawings, and AOL distributed thousands of prints on her behalf.  She was named 2011 Artist Inspiring Conservation by Audubon.  She has now become a Disney Friend for Change, and who knows what further awards await her.  Most importantly, she was one tiny person making one huge difference, a stunning example to adults who feel less empowered. 

To help Olivia help the Gulf, you can purchase her book here, or search Barnes & Noble, Amazon and others:

Olivia Bouler Saves the Gulf Wildlife

http://bit.ly/dDY1mP

Vegetation Mapping …. and Plant a Million Trees

Vegetation densities are being mapped now, and what a great way to see changes.  Planting a single tree may not show, but planting a few acres will certainly start to show…. how about hosting a tree planting drive, or even a neighborhood tree planting block party!  We can make changes in this map.    Here’s a bit of good news, the Million Trees New York City effort:

www.milliontreesnyc.org

And here’s one of our planet’s vegetation mapping efforts….how about the next one showing a bit more green?

The beginning…

This blog is in reverence to our gorgeous blue and green planet.  We have yet to find another like it, certainly not within our travel reach at the current point in time, and our humble dedication to its health is vital to our health and continued existence.  Here we will collect the stories that highlight efforts that are working, results that are showing, change for the good.  Our planet must serve us until our sun fails us in a few billion years, and it is not too late…

Our Spectacular Planet!