Trees are really out here saving us from climate change! Let’s save them back!
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
The world is simply better with trees in them 🌳. Sadly, we’ve slashed the number of trees on our planet by almost HALF, largely due to the way we’ve built our agricultural systems on factory farming and land clearing. However, it’s never too late to reframe the way we think about our trees because we cannot live without them (nor would we want to)!
Here’s what we’ll cover step-by-step:
Trees are the undercover heroes that make life on Earth possible. You wouldn’t be reading this article if trees don't exist. (Sorry, not to get dark 🌚). So, it’s important for us to show care wherever we can!
🎯 Action step 1 of 4: READ — Let's start by looking at a few articles together.
This Treehugger article is guaranteed to make you COOL at parties (get it, cool, because…trees?). Anyways, here are some fun tree facts!
🦸 Trees are the real crime-fighting superheroes we need.
Trees can reduce our anxiety, increase our pain threshold, and even express anti-cancer proteins. They increase property values (as high as 20%) and are even correlated with lower crime rates! Also, trees won’t narc on you, so we say we should fund more trees under “public safety.”
🐦 Even ONE tree boosts biodiversity by an unbelievable amount.
Researchers estimated that adding ONE tree to an open pasture can increase its bird biodiversity from almost ZERO to as high as EIGHTY. Hooray for biodiversitree!
🌳 Trees are saving us.
Did you know about half of all oxygen comes from phytoplankton (not trees)? Trees contribute to humans breathing oxygen, but their even MORE significant life-saving impact is from reducing urban pollution and heat. In the US alone, trees may be saving at least 850 people from pollution-related deaths! Climate change is exacerbated by all the CO2 that’s getting trapped in our atmosphere, and trees help eat some of this CO2 up.
🤔 And even more fun facts…
Trees can talk to each other. Trees may have memories that will help heal human-induced climate change. Trees are smart and know how to make allies to save themselves. Trees didn’t exist for most of Earth’s history. (Histree… lol)
The moral of the story is: trees are SOOO COOL. They are our friends, and they will help us heal our ecological crisis. We must help THEM! Protect trees, plant trees, hug trees, and thank them for their work today. The world is better with trees in it.
🏁 Checkpoint: This is the end of action step 1 of 4: READ.
🎯 Action step 2 of 4: LISTEN — we'll watch a short video or listen to a podcast to further expand on our topic.
Scientist Suzanne Simard gave this incredible TED talk in 2016 about how trees talk to each other. She shares a whole underground world with us--one that most of us couldn't even imagine exist.
More recently, she co-created a bite-sized educational video on The Secret Language of Trees.
In this video, you’ll learn that:
Caring about trees means caring about a healthier, happier planet! Trees are doing so much underground work (literally) that we wouldn’t be able to live without.
🏁 Checkpoint: This is the end of action step 2 of 4: LISTEN.
🎯 Action step 3 of 4: ACT — Now it's time to do something. Let's go!
Trees are amazing, but they are being eradicated by the effects of extractive capitalism. We must save them! Here are 7 ways you can advocate for trees.
1. Use Ecosia as your search engine.
This is one of the world's simplest climate actions! Ecosia plants trees with every search, and they've planted over TWO HUNDRED MILLION so far. Also, last month, you learned that AI is harming our water supply; another benefit to Ecosia is there's no annoying AI blurb at the top. Those things are so annoying and also inaccurate. Finally, Ecosia is WAY less spammy than Google.
2. Go forest bathing.
Forest bathing / forest therapy / shinrin-yoku is the Japanese contemplative practice of being immersed in the sights, sounds, and smells of the forest. There are many places that offer guided forest bathing. You can do it by yourself or simply search "forest bathing near me" on Ecosia!
3. Donate to Earth Guardians (optional: at no cost to you).
Nivi, Soapbox Project’s founder and expert climate schemer, is proud to be on the board of Earth Guardians, a youth-led organization for climate justice and ecological restoration. You can donate to them with your own money via their website AND you can also click on this Credo Mobile link to vote for them to get a big donation. It took us less than 30 seconds and Credo has already donated $58,500 to Earth Guardians! Saving trees, stewarding land, AND supporting youth leadership? Yes please.
4. Change your toilet paper situation
Bamboo toilet paper has been the gateway drug for so many people to begin their sustainability journeys. Honeycomb and Who Gives a Crap are two brands you could check out. You can also consider getting a bidet if you don't already have one! Bidet users apparently save 384 trees in their lifetime. We don't know how this is measured, but you can look at Tushy bidets.
5. Become an official conservationist
Get your Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner certificate to really level up! The Society for Ecological Restoration (SER), who hosts this certification program, also puts on a bunch of other professional programming. SER is the UN's Decade on Ecosystem Restoration partner!
6. Spend time learning from Indigenous people in the place you live,
Many of us think logging = bad. The Soapbox team used to think that until recently when we found this article. It talks about logging efforts in Wisconsin where the forest now has MORE trees than when logging started. 😵💫🤯 Partnering with people who have a deep history with the land is key!
7. Get involved with local policy to expand tree canopy in your city,
Yes to planting trees and yes to FSC certified paper and all that, but extra-yes to high-leverage action!. Advocacy and policy are key to protecting our trees. Scenic America shares language for a sample tree ordinance that you might be able to pitch to save trees in your neighborhood! Here is also an entire resource list of expanding tree canopy in your city, which also notes the environmental justice implications (ie. Wealthy people are at less risk of heat deaths because rich neighborhoods have more trees!)
Trees are really out here saving us! Let’s save them back!
🏁 Checkpoint: This is the end of action step 3 of 4: ACT.
Before we go any further, it's time for you to pledge your commitment. It takes less than 30 seconds to pledge and we can bother you about it in a friendly way, so we can hold each other accountable. Pledge here!
🎯 Action step 4 of 4: REFLECT — what can you commit to? What fresh perspectives can we look at?
Trees are our natural superheroes and it’s important to reflect and show our appreciation for them. Your reflection is yours and yours only. Choose one (or more) of the following reflections!
Reflection 1: Look outside your window / go outside. Are there trees around you? Do you know their names?
Go on a walk and see which trees are in your neighborhood. We’ve passed by trees so many times, but we sometimes don’t even know their names. One is a magnolia, but the rest is…no idea. We protect the ones we know and love and care for, so we have to start with getting to know the trees around us.
Reflection #2: Take three minutes to journal about nuance. What do you consider "good" and "bad" when it comes to protecting trees? Do you think you are correct?
We had our perspectives on logging changed, thanks to this article on a regenerative forest where logging actually contributes to more trees. Healing the climate crisis isn't just about "reducing carbon;" it's about holding complex and seemingly contradictory thoughts in our brain. Trees are the perfect anchor for this exploration.
What thoughts does this article bring up for you?
“The Menominee adopted their enlightened approach soon after the creation of the reservation in 1854. It has worked spectacularly well, says Patrick McBride, sales director of the Pennsylvania-based lumber company MacDonald & Owen, which buys most of the output from the Menominee sawmill. In almost 170 years, the tribe has harvested nearly twice the forest’s former volume of timber, yet it still has 40 percent more standing wood than when they started.”
Reflection #3: Ponder "Our Land” by Langston Hughes.
Here's a poem for you to hold onto. 💚 This poem is everything that Soapbox is striving to hear. What do you think?
We should have a land of sun,
Of gorgeous sun,
And a land of fragrant water
Where the twilight is a soft bandanna handkerchief
Of rose and gold,
And not this land
Where life is cold.
We should have a land of trees,
Of tall thick trees,
Bowed down with chattering parrots
Brilliant as the day,
And not this land where birds are gray.
Ah, we should have a land of joy,
Of love and joy and wine and song,
And not this land where joy is wrong
Yes to joy, song, and tall thick trees. It's up to us to heal ourselves and heal the Earth. Thank you for doing your part!
🏁 Checkpoint: This is the end of action step 4 of 4: REFLECT.
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