As of May 2008 the estimated world population is just over 6.6 billion people. Wow! Its no secret that the world population is growing at an alarming rate and that something needs to be done. Another interesting or alarming, however you look at it, is the decreasing forests, trees, and rainforest’s. Yet again not another big secret, but something is being done to help solve this problem and in fact those efforts are getting stepped up. I am talking about an old initiative that is being renewed to be known as the 7 billion tree project.
The project originally started as a 1 billion tree project, but goals were easily completed and exceeded to 2 million trees. So that begged the question, how high can we go? The campaign was originally spearheaded by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). It was unveiled in 2006 as one response to the threat but also the opportunities of global warming, as well as to the wider sustainability challenges from water supplies to biodiversity loss. With the success of the previous campaign Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, said “In 2006 we wondered if a billion tree target was too ambitious; it was not. The goal of two billion trees has also proven to be an underestimate. The goal of planting seven billion trees, equivalent to just over a tree per person alive on the planet, must therefore also be do-able given the campaign’s extraordinary track record and the self-evident worldwide support”.
This is surely to be an aggressive goal to complete but with the success of the previous goals achieved, there is no reason why it cannot be accomplished. Its really simple, go out and plant one tree and your contributing to the cause. If you really want to get ambitious, plant a couple of trees. This really is a great initiative and I believe it will be achieved. Click here and here to learn all the details about the campaign that I have left out.
Keep it green,
Paul
