Episode 8: One Tree Planted

Wild For Change

Today, we will be speaking with Ross Bernet, Mapping and Monitoring Expert for One Tree Planted. We will be discussing what trees actually provide for us, animals, and the planet beyond their beauty and shade.

Our planet is home to over 60,000 species of trees, some of which provide us food, all of which help absorb carbon dioxide from our atmosphere.

Forests cover a third of our planet and absorb up to 7.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. Tropical rainforests alone absorb up to 1.8 gigatons of carbon per year.

Not only do trees absorb the carbon dioxide we exhale, but they also absorb greenhouse gases that human activities emit, they filter our water, trees are home for 80% of terrestrial plants and animals, provide jobs for communities, and even provide us with health benefits such as some medicines like aspirin that is found in tree bark. Not to mention trees have been found to help us recover faster from illness when they are in our view.

However, due to deforestation to create space for cash crops, cattle ranches, urbanization, and logging, we have lost approximately 46% of the world’s forest.

According to National Geographic, between 1990 and 2016, the world lost 502,000 square miles (1.3 million square kilometers) of forest, an area larger than South Africa.

As Paul Bamikole said; “Gold is a luxury. Trees are necessities. Man can live and thrive without gold, but we cannot survive without trees.”

This is where One Tree Planted comes in. One Tree Planted is an environmental charity that is working hard to ensure the health of our planet. With every dollar donated, one tree is planted. Thanks to the support of donors, One Tree Planted will be able to plant over 10 million trees this year!

During this podcast, we will cover many topics ranging from:

• What agroforestry is and why it helps with biodiversity and maintaining the natural landscape of a region
• How urban development affects the health of a forest
• The impact of forest fires
• Why choosing sustainable paper products helps protect our ancient forests
• How rainforests are so rich in biodiversity but only cover less than 3% of the earth’s surface and what this small percentage of forests does for our planet, and so much more!

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