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Tropical rainforests have been called the lungs of the planet because of their ability to
absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen during photosynthesis. However, more than half of the
world’s tropical forests have been destroyed since the 1960s. Nowadays, 1 and half acres of forests
are cut down every second. Agricultural expansion, illegal logging, mining and urbanization
continue to drive deforestation. As awareness about this problem spreads,
tree planting drives are being conducted across the world.
In 2011, the Bonn Challenge set a goal of restoring 150 million hectares
of deforested land globally. In 2019, an initiative called Team
Trees was started by MrBeast and Mark Rober. They have planted 9 million trees so far and
plan on planting 23 million in total. In 2020, the World Economic Forum launched
The One Trillion Trees Initiative to restore biodiversity and help fight climate change.
In 2019, a paper by Thomas Crowther and his colleagues claimed that “global tree restoration
is our most effective climate change solution to date”. Scientists have criticized the paper
and its misleading claims about how much carbon trees can pull out of the air. There is no denying
the importance of trees in our environment, and the need to curb rampant deforestation.
But, planting trees has become an easy way out of our problem. Instead, we should be making
difficult but important lifestyle changes and looking at the “root” cause of the problem.
In this video, we’re going to look at 5 ways in which reckless tree planting can actually
be hurting our environment The first is Monoculture.
Tree planting initiatives are driven by numbers. They prioritize quantity over quality
and diversity. As Professor Simon Lewis explains, “almost half the area pledged so far by countries
is actually for monoculture plantations”. This is the practice of growing one crop species
over thousands of hectares. Monoculture plantations can deplete soil,
and cause erosion and degradation. They are more susceptible to pests and diseases.
These biological deserts have lower levels of biodiversity
than surrounding native forests. In 2018, Pakistan started the “10 Billion
Tree Tsunami'' project. According to researcher Usman Ashraf, the government gave free seedlings
to landowners and paid them annually for every tree that survived. After five years,
they could cut the trees for consumer products. When these products head to a landfill,
all the carbon that was stored in the tree is released into the atmosphere.
So, if diversity is the answer, how do we achieve it? Mixed tree plantations of local species for
one. Another method is leaving natural areas alone and allowing them to recover.
This hands off approach is called wilding. 20 years ago, Isabella Tree took over 3500 acres or
1400 hectares of farmland in England and gave it back to nature. It has since doubled the amount of
carbon sequestered in the soil, and has a healthy mix of shrubs, natural grass and trees.
The second is Residential greenery As our population continues to grow, huge swaths
of land are being cleared for sprawling suburbs. Dense natural forests are replaced with small
tree saplings and pretty green yards. However, our obsession with non-native grass and trees
is wasteful and destructive. There are an estimated 50 million acres of lawn in the US.
Maintaining them consumes 3 trillion gallons of water, 200 million gallons of gas for mowing,
and 70 million pounds of pesticides a year. Fertilizers rich in nitrogen,
potassium and phosphorus can trigger algal blooms that endanger fish and other marine species.
Trees planted next to houses cause serious issues to a home’s foundation,
and shorten its lifespan. Trees inadvertently contribute to planned obsolescence which we
discussed in a previous video. I’ll link it up here. In my first home, we had to install
22 concrete piers to level the foundation because of 2 large trees in the front yard.
Even our brick facades and driveway had numerous cracks. Tree roots can also break
both public and private water lines, which are costly to fix. If trees aren’t trimmed back,
they can take down power lines. Green spaces are vital for our mental health.
They can protect us from mood disorders, depression, and stress. However,
we need to end this obsession with perfectly manicured lawns and non-native trees. HOAs
monitor the appearance of lawns and trees but not their water consumption and chemical usage.
In Texas, we need to change our perception of “greenery” from this to this. Xeriscaping is
the process of landscaping without the need for irrigation. These spaces require low amounts of
maintenance and promote biodiversity. Before we move on, I’d like to share a
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The third reckless tree planting is on Skyscrapers.
Renderings of green skyscrapers are widely shared on social media.
They give off the impression of being eco friendly and combating climate change.
Bosco Verticale in Milan is one of the most popular vertical forests.
This 110 meter tower holds 800 trees, 4,500 bushes and 15,000 shrubs. They are estimated
to absorb 10,000 kg of CO2 per year. In order to bear the weight of the plants
and soil, the steel-reinforced concrete balconies are 3 m thick with 1.3 meter parapets. Every three
months, gardeners abseil from the roof of the building to trim, prune and water the plants. The
building has won numerous awards and praise from designers around the world but we have to weigh
the costs and benefits of this design. We have to compare the carbon captured by these 800 trees to
the carbon produced by excess steel and concrete and the energy consumed maintaining them. We need
to change our perception of “green” buildings. They don’t need to literally be green, but they
should be well insulated, use less glass, and be built with low carbon products. Besides,
self sustaining green spaces in a city are far more beneficial in the grand scheme of things.
Not pristine, artificial parks, but natural, untouched plots of land.
The fourth is urban tree planting The average lifespan of roadside trees
is shorter than those in rural areas because of the intense stresses they are exposed to such as
Dense Building which leads to soil compaction, limited space for root and branch growth,
and limited access to direct sunlight. Artificial building materials which lead
to high soil ph, surface runoff, and concentrated reflected beams of sunlight from glass buildings.
Heavy traffic which leads to air and soil pollution and soil compaction.
Urban trees also have to deal with poor air quality in urban areas. Many people forget
that plants and trees need oxygen to survive. During respiration, trees combine sugar and
oxygen to produce energy, water and carbon dioxide, just like every other living thing.
Instead of looking at the cause of poor air quality in urban areas and dealing with
excessive nitrogen and sulfur oxides, trees are being planted to clean up the air.
When I visited New Orleans a couple of years ago, I was in awe of the gorgeous oak trees
lining their sidewalks. They create dense tree cover and a stunning, mythical environment.
However, their pavements are beyond repair in many spots because of tree roots.
The fifth is planting trees on Grasslands. Afforestation is the act of planting of trees
in an area where there was no previous tree cover. China began the Great Green Wall program in 1978
to reclaim the Gobi Desert and increase forest cover. They hope to plant 36,000 sq kilometers
of new forest a year to combat climate change. Careful afforestation can help protect against
soil erosion and flooding. Done incorrectly, it can modify a biome, reduce biodiversity, introduce
non-native and invasive species, increase the risk of wildfires and deplete the water table.
Grassland biomes are often misunderstood. They can hold more carbon than tree-covered
landscapes. Converting open, airy grasslands, savannas and shrublands
into plantation forests can mean losing animals like wildebeest, giraffes, rhinos,
lions and blackbucks Thomas Crowther, who made misleading comments on tree planting has now
changed his stance. He says that “If a place should naturally only have one tree per hectare,
that’s the level you should be restoring. If the place should be a full forest,
that’s the level you should be restoring. If there should be no trees, that’s what you should also be
restoring.” CONCLUSION
Climate change is real and humans have increased the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.
But it is dangerous and misleading to propose that tree planting can be a silver bullet to stop
climate change. Careful restoration of forest is only one of the several things we must be doing.
We need to curb deforestation and use sustainable forest management.
We need to control hazardous air pollutants We need to change our energy guzzling
homes and buildings, not just cars. We need to stop our addiction to palm oil.
Changing our diet and lifestyle can be much more beneficial than planting a tree sapling.
Cattle ranching, soy cultivation and oil palm plantations, drives 40% of deforestation
worldwide. Palm oil is found in pizzas, noodles, ice creams, butter and chocolates.
It’s even in non-consumables like soap, shampoo and beauty products.
We also need more drastic measures to extract CO2 from the atmosphere. Companies like Charm
Industrial convert biomass into bio oil and inject it underground which I find absolutely
fascinating. Leave me a comment if you’d like to explore that topic in another video. Also, let
me know what you think about tree planting drives and what other lifestyle changes we need to make.
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