Plant America: Time to plant millions of trees

While governments of the world continue to argue and debate over the best course of action to take to mitigate and adapt to climate change that will best profit them, it is the people of America and globally who must now look beyond political solutions to moral solutions that will surely bring more positive and timely results.

Looking for only technological solutions that require too much time to bring up to standards necessary to stabilize CO2 emissions and may not even be viable at all are not the answer now. We must have a solution now that is natural, simple, virtually inexpensive, and that can give us guaranteed results. Reforestation is then the one natural method of stabilizing atmospheric CO2 that is already available to us.

The UN One Billion Trees initiative has now planted three billion trees worldwide, and out of the top ten countries participating in this initiative the US is not one of them. As one of the top three countries producing the most CO2 and greenhouse gases per capita, it is a moral imperative that the US become a major participant in reforestation efforts in our country.

This is where Plant America comes in. Plant America would seek to set a day aside for all school children to have the day off from school to travel with their schools for a day of tree planting from coast to coast. A day set aside entirely for planting trees, community awareness, and becoming closer to our planet to start this major reforestation effort. This of course could also be expanded to include college volunteers who wish to become "Johnny Appleseeds" who monitor the growth and also plant seeds around the country on a yearly basis to keep the balance of deforestation in check. For every one tree we cut down or that is lost to fire and other means we should commit to planting two in its place and work also to limit the amount of deforestation in the first place, especially old growth forests which have been found to contain the greatest stores of CO2. The benefits of this are obvious and there is no downside. Planting trees is simply good for our Earth, for humans, and for all species who need them to live.

We the undersigned then request you give serious consideration to implementing the Plant America initiative in America. Dr. Wangari Maathai is a Nobel Peace Prize recipient who started The Greenbelt Movement in Kenya in the seventies, and since then has been responsible for planting hundreds of thousands of trees that have gone a long way in providing sustenance for this world. We believe the Plant America initiative while working to balance out Co2 can also involve our children in a worthy endeavor and solution to sustain their planet for their future, and have the effect of bringing people together building pride in our country and planet and showing the world that we are seriously committed to solutions that will sustain this our only home for generations to come.