Knees, Trees, Please.
Agreement on almost any topic is rare these days; however, we all likely understand trees are imperative.
Trees are a gorgeous and glorious adornment to any landscape; they also bind, feed, and shelter the soil biome. Trees stay in place for very long periods, all the while absorbing carbon and encouraging soil health. Trees actually exhale the sky, and they purify water; they create beneficial microclimates, where birds, bees, and insects abound.
Of course, humankind cannot live on trees alone; however, we should, wherever possible, preferentially chose to support food products that come from trees. Doing this encourages the widespread wholesale planting of trees.
Four things we can do to make a difference to the timing and severity of the global eco-crisis is:
- Cut meat and dairy consumption – way down, or better yet, stop altogether.
- Limit our use of fossil-fuel intensive transport, heating, and cooling.
- Drop to our knees on the bare ground, scoop out a hollow – plant a tree – repeat.
Do this every day – plant clusters of trees – do it frequently. Planting trees and caring for them connects us to the land and to the future. By dropping to our knees, there is a chance we may not so soon be brought to our knees. Visiting saplings as they start to take space, sprout life and reach for the sky is a more intense slow-burn joy than you would expect.
- Those who can’t plant trees can take equally appropriate action by choosing products without palm oil, thus saving tropical rainforests. Spending on palm oil products directly encourages the widespread wholesale destruction of billions of trees.
Following 2020 we are more aware of nature’s beauty, close kinship, and exquisite fragility. We will be the first generation to positively put the Earth’s needs before our own, or among the last even to have that option.
If there is an upside – the climate countdown demands we experience the raw immediacy of being fully alive and fully engaged right now. We have all been unwillingly life-thrust into facing scary immensities with potentially fraught and monumentally consequential outcomes. We, it turns out, are last-responders. We may have to change everything. It will likely require the most seismic philosophical, cultural, and behavioral shift – ever. Aren’t we more primed and up for that than any previous generation? – bring it on.
Unlike previous generations, we cannot sleep-walk life in a glutinous stupor, believing eternity is at our disposal and Earth is provided for our plunder. We decidedly know otherwise; it will be our roar that echoes beyond these times, our defiance that alters the trajectory of events, or nothing will. Our focus is crisis-sharpened to the bright connection of everythingness. We will demonstrate the human spirit is most alive, potent, and present when facing blistering challenges and adversity – or prove it is not!
To misquote, quality of life is not simply about the economy anymore; “it’s the ecology stupid.” We are almost out of time to turn our love for Earth’s astonishing wonderments and matchless beauty from exploitation into practical, proactive nurturing and care.
Knees – trees – please!