Why Trees?

Trees on the Woonasquatucket River near Mowry Commons, Smithfield, RI

You've been breathing oxygen today.  That's nothing new, you breathe oxygen every day.  You have also been using electricity, and perhaps even driving a car, leaving behind puffs of carbon dioxide.  You may have eaten an apple, an orange or a banana.  You printed out a document at work and you, no doubt, sat on something at least partly made of wood.  Your house may be made of wood, as is your kitchen cutting board, your bookcases, your flooring and that picture frame on your bureau.  Right now you probably have a half-drunk cup of tea or coffee within arm's reach -- each of those is the product of a bush.

Without trees, none of these things would be possible.  We tend to forget how much we rely on these beautiful, dendritic lives that exist all around us, quietly, humbly making things happen.

When I was a child, I would climb to the top of a great white pine that once towered over our Cape Cod cottage.  It has since been replaced by three smaller pear trees, a row of lilacs, and an adolescent maple, none of which is strong enough to climb.  I am sorry that my son will never see the Hen Cove from that makeshift crow's nest, so high above the surrounding rooftops.

I love to split wood.  A wood fire is a blessing.  And pruning trees can be great meditation. 

We owe so much to trees, yet many people have a NIMBY kind of approach to them.  Trees drop inconvenient leaves all over our nice green grass.  Their roots turn a flat lawn into a lumpy mess.  They attract wildlife, which can be inconvenient for those prefer a more sterile existence. 

Have you ever wondered just how many trees it takes to offset the carbon from your car's emissions?
According to Carbonify.com's handy carbon calculator, a car that gets 40 miles to the gallon requires about 18 mature trees to offset about 12,000 miles of  yearly driving.  According to this New York Times article, one acre of mature deciduous forest offsets the carbon produced by driving 2.7 average cars for one year.  And that's just driving.  You also heat your home, eat tree fruit, use paper towels, and do many other things that require trees.  How many cars does your family own?  And how many acres of trees?

It is these complex equations that brought me to the conclusion that reforestation must be a global priority.  We, as human beings, desperately need to reforest the many millions of deforested miles that should be producing oxygen, sequestering carbon, and producing the food and timber for the next generation.  Along with local plantings, this is work that we can responsibly outsource.  People around the world need jobs.  Many of them live in the areas that have practiced aggressive deforestation.  They can improve their own lives and support themselves doing this work, if we are willing to fund it.

So what can you do?  How can you support the planting of trees?  There are lots of ways to help.  As I have often mentioned on this blog, The Eden Reforestation Projects does a fabulous job turning your donations into trees and jobs.  My own company, Plant22.com will, as of 2015, be offering American made products, the sale of which will support The Eden Projects.

If you live in a city, you can work with local tree-planting groups to help reforest vacant lots and sidewalk spaces.  If you live in the country, you can grow your own trees. And fruit trees make great gifts, especially if given in complementary, cross-pollinating pairs.  You can also advocate for more forested parks with walking trails, and sensible development policies that preserve forest and minimize large, grassy lawns.  Lawns might look nice but they require up to 3x the amount of carbon, because of mowing and watering, than they sequester in the earth.  Compare that to a garden or a forest and you can see why planting trees, bushes and perennial gardens is a much healthier proposition.  Planting your yard with wildflowers, instead of grass, is another sensible option.

If we, as a species, would like to carry on healthfully into the coming centuries, our current attitudes toward trees must change.  This kind of change starts at home.  Trees are an amazing investment.  How else can you turn an hour of your time into a thousand pounds of eventual product?  For pennies today, you can create real value tomorrow. 

Isn't it time we all got started?

Obama, Xi Jinping Climate Deal - Happily, We Can Do Better

As much as it's great to see China and the United States finally talking about climate, we have to ask the bigger question: "are the numbers truly meaningful?"

Well, I've been digging into some numbers and, to be blunt, I believe the answer is "no".

In Wednesday's CO2 agreement, President Obama pledged to reduce carbon emissions by "as much as 28%" from 2005 levels by the year 2025.  Xi Jinping pledged to peak China's carbon dioxide emissions in 2030.  Currently the US produces 16% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions and is gradually improving on this number, at least partly due to the natural gas now available through new "fracking" techniques (another thorny issue).  China produces 26% of the world's carbon emissions, and its CO2 output is growing exponentially [reference].

The world is currently absorbing only about half of the CO2 that humans produce.  By 2030, if this deal goes as planned, China's CO2 output could be four, eight or even sixteen times what it is today.

To meet this dubious goal, China will build hundreds, if not thousands, of nuclear power plants, as well as other "clean energy" production facilities, ostensibly by damming rivers and clearing forests for massive solar arrays.

Why do they need this much more energy?  So they can make more shoddy clothing, toys and disposable junk?

The upshot is that top-down solutions are not working.  If this is the best that the “top” has to offer, we must stop looking to the “top” for solutions.  What is needed, instead, is a bottom up change in priorities. 

So, let’s start from the bottom, with one of the most carbon & energy-intensive industries: big agriculture and remote food production.

Right now, less than 2% of the US population is involved in agricultural production.  In effect, that leaves 98% of Americans “food-insecure”.  The food we eat is grown by strangers on giant, distant farms, lacks nutritional value, and carries a huge carbon (and environmental) footprint.  While 98% of Americans toil at non-agricultural jobs, 70% are unhappy at work.  Many feel their jobs are pointless and their careers unstable, and many are concerned about the high cost of putting healthful food on the table. 

To sum it up: we work at disappointing jobs in pursuit of security that our leaders are unwilling or unable to provide.

Now for the kicker: according to recent studies, jobs in “agriculture, forestry and fishing” are some of the most rewarding professions.  They are dangerous, dirty, and often unprofitable, yet workers in these jobs are some of the happiest of all. 

Weird.  Maybe 98% of us are missing the boat.

Here is an equation that can change the world: Happiness + food security + community = wealth.

Where do we find happiness, food security and community? How about “agriculture, forestry and fishing” for a start?

• Local and back-yard agriculture produces healthier, potentially carbon-neutral, food.
• Forests cool the local environment, produce food and timber, absorb CO2, and increase wildlife.
• Fishing requires clean water and careful management.  Small agriculture and forestry can improve water quality, whereas big agriculture contributes heavily to water pollution.

Farming, forestry and fishing are both rewarding and cost-effective.  They are also mostly apolitical, non-partisan and largely uncontroversial.  Republicans and Democrats alike enjoy walking in the forest, eating fresh food and fishing in clean streams.  So do the Chinese, for that matter.

These pursuits bring people together over cooperative, satisfying work.  They give us purpose.

As individuals and communities, we must lead by example.  When we plant vegetable gardens and forests for ourselves and each other, we demonstrate how rewarding, and secure, life can be.  And we must publicize these successes -- at home and in China.  Every community that comes together over food, forestry and fishing can serve as an example to the next.  We must form connections and friendships across cultural boundaries.  Only by spreading our success can we hope to succeed on a global scale.

While communities become more food-secure, other sustainability issues must be addressed.  We must stop buying junk from far away, and start buying quality products from each other.  It’s all part of the same package.  So, while our leaders bicker over carbon emissions, we can be taking productive steps toward a happier, more sustainable future, from the bottom up. 

In the end, keeping the world inhabitable is everybody’s business.  Take a small step today, then take another step tomorrow.  Share your successes.  Before you know it, you'll be part of the solution.

Plant22.com

Since the beginning of this blog, I have thought quite a bit about how to best fund reforestation efforts.  This has been an exploration and a struggle.  I have tried planting trees.  But how many can I actually plant?  I have tried encouraging friends to contribute, but that's a tough row to hoe.  Everyone cares but nobody has the time.  I have even tried starting a meet up group in my town of Providence, RI.  Check out PermacultureProvidence.org.  That's my best effort to date.  It is thriving, with 56 members and counting in only four months, which proves that I am getting better at this effort....  but is it really enough?

Fortunately, trees grow like weeds here in New England.  This is a blessing and a curse for an activist.  Of what value is it to reforest an abandoned lot when that lot is already reforesting itself?  Although I will continue to plant high-value edible plants here in Rhode Island, what the world really needs is more trees planted in deforested wastelands.

Now that my son is 7 and in first grade, I have a little more time to strategize.  No longer am I trying to do the crazy balance of working part-time and playing stay-at-home dad.  Yes, I still have seven years of home maintenance to catch up on, but I also have the luxury to procrastinate the least immediate issues, like the peeling corner boards and the compacted lawn.  And when I have time to strategize, I tend to come up with big projects.  This one is a biggie!

I have rallied several friends and we are starting a business.  It is called Plant22.com.  Right now it is totally behind the scenes, but we are building it.  The goal is to sell environmentally responsible products, made in the USA, and have an average of 22 trees planted for every product purchased.

For most of our lives, businesses have been perfecting the science of offshore sourcing and production in low-wage regions of the world.  In the process we, as consumers, have passively, often unknowingly, encouraged some pretty terrible stuff.  The result has been human and environmental catastrophes.  Now we know, but sometimes it almost seems to late to go back...

The idea is to turn this model on its head. 

At Plant22.com, we are building a marketplace where the products are American made, and proceeds go to replanting forests and jungles.  The store will sell products that we rely on every day.  It will sell games that have nothing to do with computers.  It will sell healthy kitchen products and clothes that are made in the USA.  It will harness the power and efficiency of e-commerce to support artisans, artists and hard-working Americans while, at the same time, giving aid to Haiti, Ethiopia, Madagascar and other deforested countries.  That aid will be in the form of reforestation work done by the local communities.

Everyone will benefit:

• Customers will find quality, heirloom products, made to last for generations.
• American craftspeople will benefit from meaningful work and fair salaries
• Poorer countries will benefit from the regeneration of natural resources
• Communities will learn responsible forestry, investing sweat equity and building confidence.
• Everyone will feel good about working together to make a difference

We will do this by partnering with great organizations like The Eden Projects.  These folks know how to get the job done.  While raise funds by selling responsible products, they will be out there in the trenches, working in the communities and teaching people how to plant trees.

Our store is on the verge of becoming a reality.  Keep your eyes open for the soft-launch and crowd-funding campaign.

Plant22.com 
Believe in the future!