By Stella
![\"Stella\"](\"http://climatechangeforfamilies.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/stella-speaks.jpg\")
It\’s been a year and a week since the 1st plant for the planet academy in Seattle. Since then we have talked to city council, met the mayor, testified to the Governor, had a meeting with our Senators and Representatives\’ staff, been to more rallies than we can count, planted 1000s of trees.
This sounds great, like we can just solve climate change by ourselves, but our goal is 1,000,000,000,000 trees worldwide. My school alone planted 1,033 trees! But it\’s not enough. Everyone must plant 150 trees by going through organizations and planting them by themselves.
The trees will take the CO2 out of the atmosphere, changing our world for 100 years. That\’ll be a nice anniversary.
I think this is so important, because it’s the other 50% of the carbon cycle. We can stop putting the carbon up in the air, but then we have to get some of what’s already there back out.
I recently heard a study criticizing tree planting because “the effect is marginal at best, since the trees are burned after they come down.” And I fumed and thought to myself, how about we don’t use burning as a way of dealing with removed / fallen / dead trees, then? What’s wrong with letting the forest work on them?
Congratulations to all Plant-for-the-Planet Ambassadors, you’re now 1 year old! You have grown and learned and taught us a lot in this past year. May the second year be filled with more personal development, more climate action and more tree planting. Thank you Plant-For-The-Planet Ambassadors for helping mitigate and reverse climate change to create a better future for Mother Earth and all of her inhabitants!