The Climate Denier's Playbook Let’s Just Plant A Trillion Trees
Is planting a trillion trees really the solution to climate change? The hosts dive into the humor and hype surrounding this popular idea, examining its genuine merits and pitfalls. They debate corporate greenwashing versus authentic eco-efforts, revealing the complexities of tree planting initiatives. The conversation also takes a sharp turn to critique monoculture practices and emphasizes the necessity of local involvement in reforestation. With laughs and thoughtful insights, they advocate for a multi-faceted approach to climate solutions beyond just trees.
01:18:14
MrBeast's Campaign
- Mr. Beast's tree-planting campaign raised over $20 million.
- It engaged fans in environmental activism through an accessible "dollar-per-tree" model.
Charmin's Greenwashing
- Charmin uses tree planting in its marketing, claiming to regrow trees.
- The NRDC, however, is skeptical, giving Charmin an "F" for sustainability due to its reliance on primary forest fiber.
Trump on Trees
- Even Donald Trump endorsed tree planting at the World Economic Forum.
- He pledged that the United States would join the Trillion Trees Initiative.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Get the app 1 chevron_right 2 chevron_right 3 chevron_right 4 chevron_right 5 chevron_right 6 chevron_right 7 chevron_right 8 chevron_right 9 chevron_right 10 chevron_right
Intro
00:00 • 2min
Green Responsibility: Planting Hope
02:23 • 5min
Rooting for Change: The Tree Planting Debate
07:17 • 17min
Behind the Mic: Gear and Giggles
23:55 • 4min
Corporate Greenwashing: The Tree Planting Trend
27:40 • 8min
Conservative Environmentalism: Trillion Trees Under Scrutiny
35:30 • 11min
The Importance of Local Engagement in Reforestation Efforts
46:23 • 5min
The Pitfalls of Monoculture Afforestation
51:04 • 5min
Beyond Trees: Rethinking Carbon Solutions
56:00 • 18min
Tree Planting Shenanigans
01:14:22 • 8min
Why stop emitting when we can just plant a bunch of trees?
BONUS EPISODES available on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/deniersplaybook)
SOCIALS & MORE (https://linktr.ee/deniersplaybook)
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.
- Charmin. (2022, January 31). Protect Grow Restore | Charmin® Loves Trees. YouTube.
- 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.
- Jordan, A., Vinyard, S., & Skene, J. (2024). Issue with the Tissue. NRDC.
- Lee, S.-C., & Han, N. (n.d.). Unasylva - Vol. 2, No. 6 - Forestry in China. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
- The Green Belt Movement. (2021, March 3). Wangari Maathai on the origins of The Green Belt Movement. Facebook.
- MacDonald, M. (2005, March 26). The Green Belt Movement, and the Story of Wangari Maathai. YES! Magazine.
- What We Do. (2024). The Green Belt Movement.
- Nobel Peace Center. (2022, February 25). Wangari Maathai: the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Who Planted Trees.
- Campaign to plant a billion trees within a year launched at UN climate change conference. (2006, November 8). UN News: Global Perspective Human Stories.
- U. N. Environment Programme. (2008, September 10). Plant for the Planet: The Billion Tree Campaign. UNEP.
- Christophersen, T. (n.d.). The Climate Leadership That Inspires Me: Felix Finkbeiner. UNEP.
- Plant-for-the-Planet – Trillion Trees for Climate Justice. (2024). Plant-For-The-Planet.
- Plant-for-the-Planet: Growing A Greener Future. (2011, February 7). Children call at the UN for a common fight for their future - Felix Finkbeiner is speaking(en,fr,de). YouTube.
- Felix Finkbeiner. (2023, December 30). Wikipedia.
- Rienhardt, J. (2021, April 28). “Plant for the Planet”: Spendengelder versenkt? Zweifel an Stiftung wachsen. Stern.
- 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.
- Crowther, T. W., Glick, H. B., Covey, K. R., Bettigole, C., Maynard, D. S., Thomas, S. M., Smith, J. R., Hintler, G., Duguid, M. C., Amatulli, G., Tuanmu, M.-N. ., Jetz, W., Salas, C., Stam, C., Piotto, D., Tavani, R., Green, S., Bruce, G., Williams, S. J., & Wiser, S. K. (2015). Mapping tree density at a global scale. Nature, 525(7568), 201–205. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14967
- Bastin, J.-F., Finegold, Y., Garcia, C., Mollicone, D., Rezende, M., Routh, D., Zohner, C. M., & Crowther, T. W. (2019). The global tree restoration potential. Science, 365(6448), 76–79.
- 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.
- Guarino, B. (2020, January 22). The audacious effort to reforest the planet. Washington Post.
- FAQs. (2024). 1t.org.
- 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.
[For sponsorship inquiries, please contact climatetownsponsorships@gmail.com]
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.