Sequester carbon, not people

Mexico went for the world record for the most trees planted in a single day (300,000) back in August of this year, beating out India’s 254,000 set in 2005.  Looks like there’s a new kid on the block in the tree-planting Olympics.

David Masters, Fair Home:

Across the Atlantic, on the vast continent of America, one country is taking climate change seriously.

Unfortunately it’s not the US (not yet, anyway), but Peru.

Peru’s Ministry of Agriculture has decided to single handedly attempt to mitigate the effects of climate change using a nation-wide tree planting project.

The campaign began on 13th December, and aims to have 40 million trees planted by 20th February.

Forty million trees in three months. That’s the same as 512,820 trees per day. Which is a lot of tree planting.

A workforce of 130,000 people, in fact, with each person planting an average 4.5 trees per day.

Eucalyptus, pine, cypress and pepper trees will be planted in 18 Peruvian regions with suitable soil and rainfall.

Will all this work be worth it?

The Ministry of Agriculture estimates the trees will remove 570,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year.

Well worth it, I’d say.

The leader in the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign (with a goal now of planting 7,000,000,000 trees, not just one billion) is Ethiopia, having planted 700 million trees, but  Mexico (470+ million) is in second place.   Cuba (136 million) and Brazil (22.8 Million) are also among the top ten nations in new tree planting.  Even if Peru falls way short of their goal, I’m … ahem… rooting for them.