15 Billion Trees Already Planted To Fight Climate Change – The Great Planet Fake News!

First, the official magnificent dreams:

To fight climate change, to plant
1,000,000 trees (1 million) – Philippines
1,000,000,000 trees (1 billion) – New Zealand
1,000,000,000,000 trees (1 trillion) – UN & Felix Finkbeiner, German

Philippines: ANN writes, "DENR, Couples For Christ To Plant A Million Trees" (Author Not Named, 28 April 2019, Rappler, rappler.com), by 2021. I wish them well.

New Zealand: Joe McCarthy writes, "New Zealand Wants to Plant 1 Billion Trees to Fight Climate Change" (14 August 2018, Global Citizen, globalcitizen.org), also by 2021. "New Zealand is getting closer to finalizing a plan to plant 1 billion trees, according to Stuff. The government allocated an additional $240 million to the project, bringing its total budget to $485 million over the next three years." I wish them well.

All over the world:Laura Parker writes, "Teenager Is On Track To Plant A Trillion Trees" (07 March 2017, National Geographic, news.nationalgeographic.com). Miss Laura is talking about Felix Finkbeiner, German teenager thinking to thrust 1 trillion trees throughout this terra. He has founded the group Plant for the Planet, P4P, working out its dreams. By 2020. I wish this boy joy.

Mark Tutton says Mr Finkbeiner founded the P4P in 2007 ("The Most Effective Way To Tackle Climate Change? Plant 1 Trillion Trees (17 April 2019, CNN, edition.cnn.com). Already, Mr Tutton says, with many countries, P4P has planted nearly 15 billion trees.

According to the calculations of Tom Crowther of Yale University, P4P science adviser, "Those (1 trillion) trees could absorb an additional 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year."

That's the bright side.
What's the dark side?
Nobody can plant a tree at all!

Like I wrote more than 1 month ago (see my essay, "The Greening Revolution! This Is How To Defeat Climate Change!" 24 February 2019, Journalism for Development, ijournalismfordevelopment.blogspot.com):

But nobody can plant trees – you can plant only a seed, seedling, or sapling, never a tree! You have to wait at least 15 years before you can declare you have planted a tree…

So, it is fake news to claim that the P4P group has planted 15 billion trees!

P4P itself has the facts to contradict that claim. Mr Tutton writes, "It can take 30 to 40 years of growth for the carbon storage to reach its full potential." So, you can claim to have planted a tree today only if you count in at least 30 years forward!

So? Plant a garden, not a tree!

It's not the tree that captures CO2 from the air – it's the leaf. The more leaves there are, the more CO2 sequestered. We need a trillion gardens, not a trillion trees.

Certainly, anyone can plant a garden, even a 5-year old. Certainly, if all citizens of the world simultaneously cooperated – think of all those vacant lots turning into small & big gardens of flowers, fruit trees, ornamentals, or vegetables – in 1 day, we can plant all empty spaces. In 30 days, those gardens will be able to cool the whole Earth, including any climate change-tree-advocate hothead!517