Let’s Just Plant A Trillion Trees
The Climate Denier's Playbook
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Intro
This chapter explores the idea of planting a trillion trees as an effective approach to tackle climate change, highlighting its ease of understanding and broad appeal. It also showcases the success of a YouTube creator in rallying public support for reforestation, blending humor with factual insights on its environmental benefits.
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Episode notes
Why stop emitting when we can just plant a bunch of trees?
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CREDITS
- Created by: Rollie Williams, Nicole Conlan & Ben Boult
- Hosts: Rollie Williams & Nicole Conlan
- Executive Producer: Ben Boult
- Post-production: Jubilaria Media
- Researchers: Carly Rizzuto, Canute Haroldson & James Crugnale
- Art: Jordan Doll
- Music: Tony Domenick
- Special thanks: The Civil Liberties Defense Center, Shelley Vinyard & The Natural Resources Defense Council, Angeline Robertson & Stand.Earth
SOURCES
- MrBeast. (2019). Planting 20,000,000 Trees, My Biggest Project Ever! YouTube.
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- CNBC Television. (2020, January 21). Watch President Donald Trump’s full speech at the Davos World Economic Forum. YouTube.
- Carrington, D. (2019, July 4). Tree planting “has mind-blowing potential” to tackle climate crisis. The Guardian.
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- Lang, C. (2021, October 8). A trillion trees: A backstory featuring Felix Finkbeiner and Thomas Crowther. Substack; REDD-Monitor.
- Popkin, G. (2019, October 24). Catchy findings have propelled this young ecologist to fame—and enraged his critics. Science.
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- St. George, Z. (2022, July 13). Can Planting a Trillion New Trees Save the World? The New York Times.
- Pomeroy, R. (2020, January 22). One trillion trees - uniting the world to save forests and climate. World Economic Forum.
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- The Partnership. (n.d.). Trillion Trees.
- Ballew, M., Carman, J., Rosenthal, S., Verner, M., Kotcher, J., Maibach, E., & Leiserowitz, A. (2023, October 26). Which Republicans are worried about global warming? Yale Program on Climate Change Communication; Yale School of the Environment.
- Kennedy, B., & Tyson, A. (2024, March 1). How Republicans view climate change and energy issues. Pew Research Center.
- Roll Call. (2020, March 11). Is the GOP warming to climate action? Trillion trees plan hopes for growth. YouTube.
- Speaker Kevin McCarthy. (2023, June 29). Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans Fight For American-Made Energy in Columbiana County, Ohio. YouTube.
- Sen. Mike Braun - Indiana. (2024). Open Secrets
- Rep. Buddy Carter - Georgia (District 01). (2024). Open Secrets.
- Rep. Kevin McCarthy - California (District 23). (2024). Open Secrets.
- Rep. Clay Higgins - Louisiana (District 03). (2024). Open Secrets.
- Rep. Bruce Westerman - Arkansas (District 04). (2024). Open Secrets.
- Actions - H.R.2639 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Trillion Trees Act. (n.d.). Congress.gov.
- 2023 National ECongress.govnvironmental Scorecard. (2023). League of Conservation Voters.
- Heal, A. (2023, April 11). The illusion of a trillion trees. The Financial Times Limited.
- Veldman, J. W., Aleman, J. C., Alvarado, S. T., Anderson, T. M., Archibald, S., Bond, W. J., Boutton, T. W., Buchmann, N., Buisson, E., Canadell, J. G., Dechoum, M. de S., Diaz-Toribio, M. H., Durigan, G., Ewel, J. J., Fernandes, G. W., Fidelis, A., Fleischman, F., Good, S. P., Griffith, D. M., & Hermann, J.-M. (2019). Comment on “The global tree restoration potential.” Science, 366(6463). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aay7976.
- Erratum for the Report: “The global tree restoration potential” by J.-F. Bastin, Y. Finegold, C. Garcia, D. Mollicone, M. Rezende, D. Routh, C. M. Zohner, T. W. Crowther and for the Technical Response “Response to Comments on ‘The global tree restoration potential’” by J.-F. Bastin, Y. Finegold, C. Garcia, N. Gellie, A. Lowe, D. Mollicone, M. Rezende, D. Routh, M. Sacande, B. Sparrow, C. M. Zohner, T. W. Crowther. (2020). Science, 368(6494). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc8905
- Anderson, T. R., Hawkins, E., & Jones, P. D. (2016). CO2, the greenhouse effect and global warming: from the pioneering work of Arrhenius and Callendar to today’s Earth System Models. Endeavour, 40(3), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.endeavour.2016.07.002
- Hasler, N., Williams, C. A., Vanessa Carrasco Denney, Ellis, P. W., Shrestha, S., Terasaki, D. E., Wolff, N. H., Yeo, S., Crowther, T. W., Werden, L. K., & Cook-Patton, S. C. (2024). Accounting for albedo change to identify climate-positive tree cover restoration. Nature Communications, 15. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46577-1
- Viani, R. A. G., Bracale, H., & Taffarello, D. (2019). Lessons Learned from the Water Producer Project in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil. Forests, 10(11), 1031. https://doi.org/10.3390/f10111031
- Vadell, E., de-Miguel, S., & Pemán, J. (2016). Large-scale reforestation and afforestation policy in Spain: A historical review of its underlying ecological, socioeconomic and political dynamics. Land Use Policy, 55, 37–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.03.017
- TED-Ed. (2023, December 19). Does planting trees actually cool the planet? - Carolyn Beans. YouTube.
- Howard, S. Q.-I., Emma, & Howard, E. (2022, December 12). “How are we going to live?” Families dispossessed of their land to make way for Total’s Congo offsetting project. Unearthed.
- Garside, R., & Wyn, I. (2021, August 6). Tree-planting: Why are large investment firms buying Welsh farms? BBC News.
- Gabbatiss, J., & Viisainen, V. (2024, June 26). Analysis: UK misses tree-planting targets by forest the “size of Birmingham.” Carbon Brief.
- Buller, A. (2022). The Value of a Whale. Manchester University Press.
- Alexander, S. (2024, May 3). A Billionaire Wanted to Save 1 Trillion Trees by 2030. It’s Not Going Great. Bloomberg.
- No Watermark Clips. (2019, May 21). King of the Hill on Carbon Offsets. YouTube.
- Choi-Schagrin, W. (2021, August 23). Wildfires are ravaging forests set aside to soak up greenhouse gases. The New York Times.
- Hodgson, C. (2021, August 4). US Forest Fires Threaten Carbon Offsets as Company-Linked Trees Burn. Inside Climate News.
- What’s the potential of a trillion trees? (2020). Crowther Lab.
- Luhn, A. (2023, December 13). Stop Planting Trees, Says Guy Who Inspired World to Plant a Trillion Trees. Wired.
- TED Audio Collective. (2022, July 3). Can planting trees really stop climate change? | Thomas Crowther | The TED Interview. YouTube.
- Fleischman, F., Basant, S., Chhatre, A., Coleman, E. A., Fischer, H. W., Gupta, D., Güneralp, B., Kashwan, P., Khatri, D., Muscarella, R., Powers, J. S., Ramprasad, V., Rana, P., Solorzano, C. R., & Veldman, J. W. (2020). Pitfalls of Tree Planting Show Why We Need People-Centered Natural Climate Solutions. BioScience, 70(11). https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaa094
- Oglesby, C. (2021, Feb 9). Republicans want to plant 1 trillion trees — and then log them. Grist
CORRECTIONS
- Felix Finkbeiner was 13 years old when he spoke at the United Nations, not 12.
- The industry that has currently contributed the most to Rep. Bruce Westerman’s career campaigns for federal congress is the Forestry & Forest Products industry, as reported by Open Secrets. The Oil & Gas industry is listed as #2.
DISCLAIMER: Some media clips have been edited for length and clarity.
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