[NAEP] How many can we get?

[Dawn Wiseman]

In 2004, Prof. Wangari Maathai of Kenya became the first African 
woman to win a Nobel prize in any category when she was awarded the 
Peace Prize for her lifelong commitment to environmental 
sustainability and the empowerment of women. In 1977, she founded the 
Green Belt Movement in Kenya which has seen 900,000 mainly rural 
women open tree nurseries and plant trees to overcome the effects of 
deforestation.

Prof Maathai is now the patron for the Plant for the Planet: Billion 
Tree Campaign, an initiative of the UN Environmental Program which 
hopes to leverage the power of individuals to make a difference.

Through the program people, communities, businesses, industries, 
civil society organizations and governments will be encouraged to 
enter tree planting pledges with the objective of collectively 
planting at least one billion trees worldwide during 2007.

It is seen as a way that ordinary citizens can contribute to the 
fight against global warming, as each tree contributes to carbon 
absorption.

As Prof. Maathai says, "Anybody can dig a hole, anybody can put a 
tree in the hole and water water it." Anybody at or below the 
treeline anyway...

A class pledge might be an interesting way to explore climate change, 
plant biology and social action. For those of you too far north for 
trees, how about an exploration of the key flora in the carbon cycle 
in your regions.

More information about the project can be found at:
http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/