Branching out to tackle climate change

GILLIAN KLAWANSKY

“From trees to water to the earth, tree planting represents the preservation of the symbiosis of the earth’s elements,” says Beverley Price, the education officer of the Jewish National Fund of South Africa (JNF-SA). The organisation supports Israel and South Africa by promoting eco-consciousness and environmental education.

Given the challenges the earth faces, tree planting has become increasingly vital. “In our times, technological-industrial efficiency, product diversity, and greed have led to global warming – a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere generally caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide and pollutants.”

Trees, together with plants, algae, and certain bacteria, can tackle this through photosynthesis, a process whereby they absorb carbon dioxide and turn it into oxygen. Sean Hide, the founder of Grow A Tree, a social enterprise that offers environmental education and promotes tree growing, explains further.

“Trees are considered to be a carbon sink – anything that takes in more carbon than it emits as carbon dioxide,” says Hide, whose organisation has distributed more than 500 000 seeds to date. “Carbon dioxide is the main contributor to the greenhouse effect which is causing climate change. Therefore, planting more trees leads to less carbon dioxide. The more trees we plant, the more natural elements there are that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.”

Trees are instrumental in maintaining the functioning of the ecosystem. “Trees improve water quality by slowing down how fast rain falls into the earth,” says Price. “They help water soak into the soil. The roots prevent soil erosion, and hold back on water loss in storms. Trees serve as natural filters to protect streams, rivers, and lakes. They keep up with our overconsumption, and restore the carbon dioxide-oxygen equilibrium.” While even one tree makes a difference, entire forests have a massive impact, adding more moisture to the air thereby increasing animal life and biodiversity, says Hide.

There are numerous tree planting programmes around the world, but more needs to be done, he says. Alongside various global campaigns, hundreds of national initiatives exist with notable achievements including Ethiopia planting more than 300 million trees in a day.

“I don’t think South Africa is doing enough to plant trees,” says Hide, “but there are many problems the country is dealing with. Growing more trees would create a lot more jobs and be a solution to many more problems if the government added it to its agenda, but I understand that it has serious mandates already. That’s why I mainly focus on schools and on encouraging corporates to plant trees to get some of their profit into the ground.”

Hide also highlights the Spekboom challenge currently taking place in South Africa. Here, individuals and organisations are planting Spekboom plants and sharing photos of them on various social media channels. The Spekboom absorbs the highest amount of carbon dioxide when compared to any other plant in existence, and needs only half the water other plants require to survive.

Israel’s example, in which trees and plant life thrive in a desert through agricultural innovation, is also one that the world can use in the fight against climate change. For example, from 1901 onwards, the Jewish National Fund created arable land, which led to the formation of the Liman. “It’s a place in desert soil where floodwater is dammed up in a dried out riverbed known as a wadi,” explains Price. “The water, being confined to a localised area, penetrates and wets the desert soil at depth. Small groves of trees have been ingeniously grown this way and stay alive in the desert.”