Type to search

AFRICA

Ethiopia Plants a Remarkable 350 Million Trees in One Day

Fig Tree-Gathering Place-Axum (Aksum)- Ethiopia Date 2 May 2013, 03:03. Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada

As forests around the world continue to shrink, reforestation efforts have begun gaining momentum.

“In a record-breaking day this week, at the Gulele Botanical Garden in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia launched an [sic] historic tree planting campaign. Over 350 million trees were planted in an ambitious move to counter the effects of deforestation and climate change,” reported the United Nations (U.N.) Environment organization after the historic event.

“The event is part of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Green Legacy Initiative. It aimed at planting 200 million trees in a single day in 1,000 sites across the country. Prime Minister Ahmed congratulated the country for not only meeting its collective Green Legacy goal but also exceeding it,” the report continued.

Significance of the Initiative

“Afforestation is the most effective climate change solution to date and with the new record set by Ethiopia, other African nations should move with speed and challenge the status quo,” said Juliette Biao Koudenoukpo, Director of UN Environment’s Africa Office. She continued, “Africa has what it takes to spearhead this global push and as the most affected and vulnerable continent, climate change mitigation must be the topmost priority in the coming days. We at UN Environment are taking the lead in helping to build capacity for nations and people to apply themselves to afforestation and climate change mitigation strategies.”
As forests around the world continue to shrink, reforestation efforts have begun gaining momentum. “Our goal for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in 2020 is to plant 7.8 billion trees, one for every person on earth,” said the Earth Day Network (EDN) whose mission is to “diversify, educate, and activate the environmental movement worldwide.”
EDN continues, “Deforestation is the second leading cause of global warming and produces about 24% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Scientist say that deforestation in tropical rainforests adds more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than the sum total of all the cars and trucks on the world’s roads. In some countries, such as Brazil and Indonesia, deforestation and forest degradation together are by far the main source of national greenhouse gas emissions.”

Reversing Climate Change

There are geoengineering techniques in existence which could help reverse the harmful effects of climate change. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) details how human influence has played a significant role in climate change.

“The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is extremely likely (greater than 95 percent probability) to be the result of human activity since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over decades to millennia,” NASA continued. “The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated in the mid-19th century. Their ability to affect the transfer of infrared energy through the atmosphere is the scientific basis of many instruments flown by NASA. There is no question that increased levels of greenhouse gases must cause the Earth to warm in response.”

With massive movements like those in Ethiopia, it’s possible that humanity can start reversing the harm they have caused on the environment. However, with the United States leaving the Paris Climate Accords, it will take a change of political will in the U.S. and other nations for change to take place.

Tags:
Walter Yeates

Walter Yeates is a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter who embedded at Standing Rock with military Veterans and First People in December 2016. He covers a range of topics at Citizen Truth and is open for tips and suggestions. Twitter: www.twitter.com/GentlemansHall or www.twitter.com/SmoothJourno Muckrack: https://muckrack.com/walteryeates

You Might also Like

2 Comments

  1. Larry Stout August 5, 2019

    Very nice.. Now, what about feeding Ethiopia’s >110M people?

    Reply

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *