Ethiopia Plants 350 Million Trees in a Day To Help Tackle Climate Crisis (theguardian.com) 174
About 350 million trees have been planted in a single day in Ethiopia, according to a government minister. From a report: The planting is part of a national "green legacy" initiative to grow 4 billion trees in the country this summer by encouraging every citizen to plant at least 40 seedlings. Public offices have reportedly been shut down in order for civil servants to take part. The project aims to tackle the effects of deforestation and climate change in the drought-prone country. According to the UN, Ethiopia's forest coverage was just 4% in the 2000s, down from 35% a century earlier.
Ethiopia's minister of innovation and technology, Dr Getahun Mekuria, tweeted estimates of the number of trees planted throughout the day. By early evening on Monday, he put the number at 353 million. The previous world record for the most trees planted in one day stood at 50 million, held by India since 2016.
Ethiopia's minister of innovation and technology, Dr Getahun Mekuria, tweeted estimates of the number of trees planted throughout the day. By early evening on Monday, he put the number at 353 million. The previous world record for the most trees planted in one day stood at 50 million, held by India since 2016.
Water Crisis in 20 years? (Score:3, Interesting)
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I would guess that water table is going to be monitored very closely in the following decades
Don't worry . . . most of those trees will be felled for wood for cooking stoves.
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Re:Water Crisis in 20 years? (Score:5, Insightful)
In fact it is great news. A poor country doing what is in its power to help to tackle a planetary problem. I wouldn't think they are able to make even minimal acts of governance like this one; I am surprised in a good way. You should be ashamed for not recognizing or appreciating their gesture.
Re: Water Crisis in 20 years? (Score:3, Insightful)
More than what America manages to do.
Yet people whine and are negative for no reason.
Even if it's a limited selection of species there's lots of space for other species of plans and animals in-between.
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Perhaps it's shame that their much wealthier country can't seem to manage to do this.
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I hope they were wise enough to plant a diverse selection of nitrogen fixers and fruit trees.
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how many of that is mono-culture pulp paper trees?
The US could contribute by just STOP FUCKING MOWING EVERYTHING.
I've been in my house ~12 years. It was a typical "neat and tidy" dessert when I moved in. I simply set aside a few areas in the yard that I don't mow and now my house is surrounded by 20+ foot trees and the remaining lawn gets enough sun to thrive, but not so much that it gets burned brown under the southern sun.
Stop mowing people. Nature will find a way-- at least anywhere east of the Mississip
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More than what America manages to do. Yet people whine and are negative for no reason.
Mod correction. The OP should me correctly modded as -1, Troll.
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America plants more then 1.6 billion trees every year.
https://www.bugwood.org/intens... [bugwood.org]
That is 5 trees, for everyone that we use. That is around 5,000 trees every day. The only country that has planted more trees than the United States is China. (Didn't see that coming.)
https://www.carbonbrief.org/ma... [carbonbrief.org]
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How many of them survive?
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Depends on why you are fishing around for this information. If you are looking for information to bash the US or China you are out of luck. A great deal of them survive in both the US and China.
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And what led you to assume anything about my intent?
A horticulturist I once new claimed to me that in bulk replanting, eg. after clearcutting, survival is 50% at best. Which is not bashing anything, but I do like to see statistics interpreted correctly.
Forests help build water reserves (Score:5, Informative)
The GP is naive. Forests don't deplete water supplies, they help increase available water. When the ground is barren, the hot direct sun dries the soil out very quickly, making a highly compacted crust that simply does not allow rain water to penetrate very well. If rain occurs sparsely, the water just stays on the surface and gets boiled away back into the atmosphere when the hot sun comes back out. If rain occurs heavily, dry compacted crusty soil doesn't absorb water and you get flash flooding, which loses the water to run-off streams.
Compare that to a well forested piece of land. The ground level is kept cool from the tree canopy blocking out direct sunshine, so even a light rain can keep the soil moist for a long time. When rain water falls, it gets slowed down by hitting the forest canopy first instead of pounding and compacting the ground. The trees constantly drop leaves, needles, and sticks that makes for a very fluffy and loose floor. The loose floor litter provides lots of nooks and crannies for water to stick around and get absorbed into the soil instead of flooding away. The end result is that forests help increase water reserves significantly.
On the other hand, getting a newly planted forest established over an already dry, barren landscape is the tricky part. Might need to do a little watering and mulching to help get things started.
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Actually this is only one part of a huge turnaround for Ethiopia. The global angle is really hype but hey why not. The deforestation aspect is very real. These trees aren't just planted willy nilly. They serve as windbreaks. TREES RAISE WATER TABLES AND OVERALL WATER QUANTITY. So the prior water table comment is just ignorant hateful nonsense.
The big thing not yet mentioned if that Ethiopia is finally building a dam. This takes some courage as Egypt has told Ethiopia if they ever dammed the Nile then Egypt
Re:Water Crisis in 20 years? (Score:4, Insightful)
At least they are trying. All you do is shit on other people's efforts to fix your mess.
Re: Water Crisis in 20 years? (Score:3)
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A carbon pyramid scheme.
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But this doesn't happen. Forests are shrinking because they're being cut down for farmland. Basically the population keeps growing and one of the bigger carbon sinks on the planet is shrinking.
Re: Water Crisis in 20 years? (Score:1)
You're fucking stupid if you think it generates more than what it picked up when growing.
Pretty stupid if you think trees hold much carbon even if just allowed to root on the ground rather than be burned too. Maybe s tiny amount get locked in in the soil but it won't be much.
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"Felling trees for wood cooking stoves is literally the worst thing that you can do.
it literally is not.
Burning coal for a massive power grid is.
Foliage is carbon neutral.
This is a sequestration method to buy time. and also deal with all the other issues about the environment besides CO2.
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How many of these 350 million trees will still be alive in 20 years? I remember one Earth Day in school where every student got a tree to plant. I’m pretty sure most of them died within a few years.
You are right, probably not as much survive as a professional tree planting operation, but it doesn't actually matter if most of them die as long as you keep doing it. When I was a child, one of my father's postings was on an army base that was strip logged into being a desert prior to World War 1. One day every year everyone one on the base, Military or dependent, went out and planted trees and it was working. There were some sandy parts left, but they were shrinking. In the forested parts, the older
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" I’m pretty sure "
And I"m pretty sure you say that to confirm you biased narrative.
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If 1 in 5 of these trees were actually planted, and 1 in 7 of them survives, that's still ten million trees. About 20% of a tree's mass is roots. But if they cut a tree down and make stuff out of it, then large percentages of it will be sequestered... And even if they burn it, at least that's carbon neutral — in fact, slightly carbon-negative, because of the roots.
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Ya, planting a tree on school grounds doesn't do much. What needs to be done is stop cutting down forests. Planting trees helps most if they're in an area likely to keep growing and not be disturbed, or to offset trees cut for lumber if managed long term. The problem is often with third world countries where trees are cut to get more lumber for more people, or more farmland for more people, so there is zero replanting or replenishing of the forests.
But making the attempt is still a good attempt. If only
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Re:Water Crisis in 20 years? (Score:4, Informative)
Not true, not even close to true. This is a misrepresentation of a report that found that there are more trees than a century ago. http://www.fao.org/3/x4995e/x4... [fao.org]
There are still huge swaths of the great lakes region, the south and south west which are still completely missing their historic forest cover in favor of farmland and urban sprawl. Mountains in central New Mexico were completely stripped of timber in the late 1800s for mining and railroads, they're still recovering.
So it's a good thing the trend has reversed and we should be happy it has but 'more than ever' is patently false..
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Big trees, lots of undergrowth too. Sometimes it's harder to move through those forests as well. In Europe, there are most certainly fewer trees today than in the distant past. But there are US states you can go to that used to be heavily forested where you now only see a few fragments left preserved in parks.
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Utterly ridiculous.
Re: Water Crisis in 20 years? (Score:2)
But vegetation typically help hold water not the other way around.
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Yes, but not because of this.
seems the least they could do (Score:5, Funny)
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Re: seems the least they could do (Score:1)
Didn't Vikings remove just about all forest on Iceland in 100 years too?
Still just have little.
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Goat hooves are the problem.
They were introduced to New Zealand about 150 years ago and they're causing _major_ erosion problems in the mountains there - the damage done by deer is nothing compared to goats, but goats aren't "sexy" to hunt.
(This is defnitely a case where hating on people who hunt and kill the things is wrong - they're the wrong animal in the wrong place and letting them stay will destroy the ecosystem - making them into tasty meals is one way of encouraging their removal.)
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Big deal, that same day 350 million Indians planted turds in their streets.
Turd is good fertilizer
Where from? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Where from? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, that's a pretty big number. This seems like the kind of stunt that eventually gets walked back by people making justifications and saying "well, we dropped a half million seeds from some planes, and we assume half of them will sprout... et voila!"
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Yeah, that's a pretty big number. This seems like the kind of stunt that eventually gets walked back by people making justifications and saying "well, we dropped a half million seeds from some planes, and we assume half of them will sprout... et voila!"
They planted "seedlings"
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They planted "seedlings"
Precisely why I questioned the large number. 350 million seeds? Sure. 350 million seedlings? In a ready-to-plant condition, transported all around the country, and then planted all on the same day by how many of the 105 million Ethiopians living there? No way. That is a logistics impossibility.
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Yeah, that's a pretty big number. This seems like the kind of stunt that eventually gets walked back by people making justifications and saying "well, we dropped a half million seeds from some planes, and we assume half of them will sprout... et voila!"
Exactly, it is a huge number. I also question the logistics of how such an undertaking could be coordinated. Ethopia has 105 million people. All 105 million would have to plant 3 tree seedlings each to meet the 350 million seedlings estimate. I doubt all 105 million people participated, and most likely didn't Addtionally, even if they did have 350 million seedlings in a ready-to-plant condition, how would they transport them around the country to be planted all in one day? Answer: they didn't, the logisti
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RTFA. There are 350 nuseries total in Ethiopia and each of them has cranked out 1 million seedlings. It goes without saying that these are the most productive nurseries the world has ever seen.
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It goes without saying that these are the most productive nurseries the world has ever seen.
In lie of more data, A) no it doesn't and B) STFU with your inane meaninglessness.
Natural seeds don't make trees very often. (Score:4, Insightful)
So uh, where do all the seedlings come from
Think about how many seeds a tree makes in its lifetime. All those maple helicopters, for example, or all the fruit on a fruit tree in a season, at maybe five seeds per fruit. All that fuzz on a cottonwood, with a seed in every tiny puff.
If TWO of them grow up into an adult tree, the size of the forest doubles in one generation.
Most of that is seeds that never germinate, because they didn't end up in a spot with the right conditions.
Now collect a BUNCH of those seeds and carefully place each in a small container of soil with suitable conditions - which you can do a LOT of in evem a small space.. Lots of 'em germinate - maybe much more than half if you get it right. In one generation a single tree can populate a large field, or a field's worth populate an enormous forest.
Are there really enough tree farms around the country of Ethiopia to support planting 350+million of them?
Already answered by another poster.
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All those maple helicopters, for example, or all the fruit on a fruit tree in a season, at maybe five seeds per fruit. All that fuzz on a cottonwood, with a seed in every tiny puff.
If TWO of them grow up into an adult tree, the size of the forest doubles in one generation.
Most of that is seeds that never germinate, because they didn't end up in a spot with the right conditions.
Now collect a BUNCH of those seeds and carefully place each in a small container of soil with suitable conditions - which you can do a LOT of in evem a small space.. Lots of 'em germinate - maybe much more than half if you get it right. In one generation a single tree can populate a large field, or a field's worth populate an enormous forest.
I know what a seedling is, and that is precisely why I questioned the large number. 350 million is ridiculously large considering the effort to germinate and then transport. 350 million seeds? Sure. 350 million ready-to-plant seedlings? I'm not buying it.
I also question the logistics of how such an undertaking could be coordinated. Ethopia has 105 million people. All 105 million would have to plant 3 tree seedlings each to meet the 350 million seedlings estimate. I doubt all 105 million people participate
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Probably Israel. Ethiopia and Israel have a long history of cooperation/friendship, and Israel is very experienced with reforestation.
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Also there are numerous nurseries around the world that grow trees so your doubt seems bizarre. You do realize that tress produce seeds don't you? Seeds are cheap. Ethiopians have an ideal climate for raising seedlings [...] 350 million seedlings is NOTHING compared to what Ethiopia could potentially produce. I don't see the numbers as impossible at all though it is of course an internal estimate. But seedlings are small so a few well managed acres in Ethiopia could do it with their 70's F year round temps and 12hr a day sun weather so 4 seedling crops a year from the same ground. 9 sq inches per seedling so do the math.
Your confidence in their reported numbers is equally bizarre to me. I did the math and 350 million *seedlings* (not seeds) is an astronomical number. The article claims they planted all 350 million seedlings in one day across the country to break a world record for the most trees planted in one day. I find that to be tall claim. 105 million people live in Ethiopia which would require them to plant 3 trees each. All 105 million people didn't participate. Then you have the logistics nightmare of preparing
Overkill (Score:5, Funny)
640K trees ought to be enough for anybody. This is a solution looking for a problem.
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640K trees ought to be enough for anybody. This is a solution looking for a problem.
Those trees have No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.
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That's some nice nostalgia right there.
Well done.
Doubtful (Score:1)
It's an "estimate". Sort of like "alternative facts". It's the new reality, ya know.
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Good idea! (Score:5, Insightful)
At last! Real tangible action, real behavior change. Beats the heck out of just taxing people for flying.
I tip my hat to you, Ethiopia. Well done. An example for others to follow.
Even if most of them don't survive. (Score:1)
If ethiopians and ethiopia in general take this seriously, they can go far in expanding their tree canopy, which besides helping filter the air for them, will eventually help their land retain water. Even if it doesn't provide extra water for farming, it will provide canopy for other wildlife which may help supplement foraging in years where it was required.
With a combination of reforestation and desalinating and pumping water inland on the african continent, it is quite possible that much of Africa could b
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Because in Ethiopia, tress are free?
Oh, right, taxes.
And yes, people should have a high tax for flying. Somewhere around 30%
Planting tress in a drought stricken country... (Score:2)
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Strange that they then have had more trees in the past... Wonder what removal of trees does to a dry area, sadly there is no way to easily search for something like that...
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Ever taken an Aspirin? It comes from the bark of a tree!
No it doesn't. Aspirin is a synthetic chemical compound and is not derived from tree bark. Aspirin is acetylsalicylic acid. Willow Bark only contains the precursor to aspirin, salicin, which the human body metabolizes to salicylic acid, the precursor to aspirin.
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You know the Ethiopian drought was in the 80s right?
I've been to Ethiopia. Much of it is rainy and cold.
Estimated to be 350 million (Score:2, Interesting)
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irrelevant.
Because you do it again , and again.
eventually it's done.
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I've planted many thousands of trees, and been involved with migrant crews planting many tens of thousands.
None were watered after planting, and we aimed for a 60-75% take rate, depending on site quality.
I'll assume the drought tolerance of the species planted was at least looked at for such a massive project. Probably something native that's early successional.
News 30 years from now (Score:1)
Ethiopia is decimated by massive wildfires as billions of dried out trees burn for months on end.
Trees are good.... (Score:1)
Trees are good. Solar power is good, but they compete for sun with those trees. Windmills are good. Nuclear power is better.
What about Chernobyl? That is a design unique to Russia, no one would have been allowed to build such a reactor anywhere else in the world. The RBMK reactors like it that didn't blow up, had construction halted, or were shutdown, had modifications to prevent such an event from happening again.
What of Fukushima or Three Mile Island? TMI was a shiny new reactor that was destroyed w
It's a good start (Score:5, Insightful)
Can they plant that many in one day? (Score:1)
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There are 86,400 seconds in one day. So 350,000,000 / 86,400 = approx 4,050 trees planted EVERY SECOND. Given general knowledge of planting plants, even with hi-tech automated machinery, can this actually get accomplished in one day? And think of the area/acreage needed, etc. Just questioning the amount. What do you guys think? thanks.
I had the same questions. Nevermind the logistics nightmare of preparing and transporting 350 million seedlings all over the country to put them in the hands of people to be planted... all in one day. Impossible. I'm calling bullshit.
Sounds like a lot of trees, but... (Score:2)
A few years ago, Texas suffered a severe drought. Estimates were that 65 million trees were killed just in the city of Houston that summer. Even with that number of dead trees, it was never apparent to a casual observer that there was any thinning of the tree population.
It's a good effort, but it's going to take a LOT of trees to bring back the green.
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So, can the country feed it's people now? Or are they wasting resources trying to plant trees?
Fuck the people, fuck the children. Think of the planet!
try not to be a dumbass (Score:1)
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Found the cave diver!
Re: Trees, not food? (Score:2)
Re:Trees, not food? (Score:4, Informative)
Considering Ethiopia is the country that receives the most global food aid (16%) [wfp.org], maybe crops would be a better approach.
Their population has almost tripled since 1985 [worldometers.info] when Live Aid was launched in response to the famine there... another concern.
Re:Trees, not food? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not saying it will; just pointing out that their reasoning appears no more flawed than yours.
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Considering Ethiopia is the country that receives the most global food aid (16%) [wfp.org], maybe crops would be a better approach.
Their population has almost tripled since 1985 [worldometers.info] when Live Aid was launched in response to the famine there... another concern.
I love how conservatives think. They want to ban poor people from having abortions, block them from getting family planning or birth control and then they piss and moan about poor people having too many kids.
Re: Trees, not food? (Score:4, Informative)
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The people who actually lived on the land which has been "brought into production", don't get any compensation as far as I'm aware. If they're lucky, the Saudis might let a few of them come back to collect the harvest for them. The move to mechanized agriculture means there won't even be as many of those jobs. And any well-paid administrative/office positions are pre-f
Their birth rate's still dropping (Score:4, Informative)
As for the rest, that's covered:
e.g. they're not just planting willy nilly for climate change, they're planting for productive use. They're probably trying to become self sufficient and modernize.
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How would crops prevent conflict displacement? You know, the primary reason they need aid.
and this helps offset global warming, which is the other big reason they need food aid.
The country has made a lot of strides, but it's fighting against a tide.
Re:Trees, not food? (Score:5, Insightful)
Considering Ethiopia is the country that receives the most global food aid (16%) [wfp.org], maybe crops would be a better approach.
Your link dates from 2012. If we look at more recent 2017 figures https://oec.world/en/profile/c... [oec.world] Ethiopia exports $1.5B of vegetable products, and imports $270M of them.
Ethiopia's famine wasn't caused by it systematically having not enough acres of crops. It was caused by a temporary drought, without the structural resilience to handle it. Planting trees (hence improving soil, retaining more water, ...) seems like one of the best ways to address that structural resilience.
Adding more acres of crops won't do anything to help.
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Crops without trees, have no water.
And most likely trees are planted along the hills, mountains. And crops prefer planes.
Ethiopia ... it helps to either have an idea what/where the country is, or simply look on a map.
BTW: the year now is 2019, not 1985.
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Depends what kind of trees, they could be the largest exporters of (pick a tree that grows well in Ethiopia that has fruit).
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This is so stupid that it's impossible to give a proper response. Not in an insulting way but really technically impossible.
Re:Trees, not food? (Score:5, Insightful)
They are planting trees to improve their watersheds, so their country is less vulnerable to severe droughts.
In good years, they have both the food and manpower to make the investment.
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AC doesn't read article or understand things are linked, news at 11, but first, more about her email!!!!
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The goal was for each citizen to average planting 40 trees. There are over 100 million people in Ethiopia. Many will be too old/young, but one person planting 500 bare root seedlings in a day is a pretty relaxed pace.