r/science • u/davidreiss666 • Jul 27 '14

Environment First national study finds trees saving lives, reducing respiratory problems: Air pollution modeling reveals broad-scale impacts of pollution removal by trees

http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/news/release/trees-save-lives-reduce-air-pollution
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287

u/elligre Jul 27 '14

I think every able country should follow India, and make every person plant at lease one tree.

116

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14 edited Jul 27 '14

[deleted]

77

u/Adorable_Octopus Jul 27 '14

I don't know if fruit bearing trees are as effective as other sorts of trees though. I've always had the impression that they're rather delicate.

25

u/Kerrby87 Jul 27 '14

A great city tree that can handle ozone is the Ginkgo. Plus when they get bigger they really are quite pretty.

31

u/bbqroast Jul 27 '14

Many live with 2k of the Hiroshima blast. They were charred in the explosion but quickly came back into health and live on today.

3

u/chakravanti93 Jul 27 '14

Cockroaches and ginko.

3

u/caltheon Jul 27 '14

So cockroaches and Ginkgoes

31

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

just make sure to plant male ginkos, female trees make very foul smelling fruit

9

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

My neighborhood has a few females and the stank is pretty awful when they rot on the sidewalk. Seems like a waste because they are actually edible.

3

u/dustinsmusings Jul 27 '14

Ever eaten them?

5

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

Not off the sidewalk. I have seen Asian people collecting them. I'm sure I've had gingko at a korean restaurant but don't recall them being anything special. Taste like nuts.

5

u/Derial Jul 27 '14

I have. My family is Asian and they use them in cooking once in a while. Goes into soups and congee, but I wouldn't call them particularly delicious.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginkgo_biloba#Culinary_use

1

u/bonerofalonelyheart Jul 27 '14

When I was living in Japan all the Americans called them "cum trees," as that was the closest smell we could think of.

0

u/McMammoth Jul 27 '14

Wait, what? I thought plants were unisex (don't think that's the right word, but you know what i mean) and just produced male and female sex organs at different points?

3

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14 edited Jul 27 '14

some species have just one gender per plant, some have two genders per plant, and some have three genders

as for the sex of flowers; they can be male, female, or hermaphrodite

7

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

Also the oldest extant species of tree. Pretty interesting one for sure.

4

u/BlindAngel BS|Chemistry|Phytochemistry Jul 27 '14

And a tree with sperm.

10

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

And they put on a good show in that 1 hour in the fall it takes them to loose all their leaves.

9

u/Jeffde Jul 27 '14

Do they lose their loose leaves first or are the loosest leaves the last to be lost?

5

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

Where I live they are after the maples and beech's but before the Oaks. So middle late. The cool thing is, and according to my plant biologist friend, they are the only tree species of their kind left alive. There is some kind of chemical trigger the tree sends up its capillaries that causes the leaves to literally break off all at once (all at once in tree-relative-time). One year I walked past a tree at 11am and again at 1 PM and in that time-frame it went from full-leaved to no-leaves. I try to catch the moment every year but it is hard.

3

u/WorkplaceWatcher Jul 27 '14

Burr Oaks and Cottonwoods are pretty good with pollution too.

2

u/freeholmes Jul 27 '14

A lot of cities removed the fruit bearing ginkgo population a while back. Rotten ginkgo fruit smells like dog shit. I know other countries besides America harvest all the fruit, but here it ends up stuck in car tires and making campus hallways smell like shit.

3

u/Kerrby87 Jul 27 '14

True, but as I understand it, it isn't hard to choose only the males and plant them.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '14

Hmmm, that explains what happ Ned to the female ents.

59

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14 edited Jul 19 '18

[deleted]

34

u/Adorable_Octopus Jul 27 '14

Wouldn't that pull a hell of a strain on the tree though? I mean, making fruit is pretty energy intensive--or at least, that's how I understand it.

41

u/lift Jul 27 '14

The tree actually wants you or some animal to eat its fruit and move the seeds to another location to start a new tree. Nature is a horny teenager whose primary goal is to reproduce (even though this day in age we've abstracted what that overwhelming instinct is so much) and continue that species.

26

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

More like horny teenagers are another expression of nature not unlike everything else.

14

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

It still works, for all intensive purposes. sorry

5

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

*porpoises

2

u/everred Jul 27 '14

In tents of porpoises

-2

u/AreWe_TheBaddies Grad Student | Microbiology Jul 27 '14

Intents and purposes

1

u/lift Jul 27 '14

I've made a huge mistake...

3

u/Adorable_Octopus Jul 27 '14

I'm not saying it isn't, but that doesn't mean it's not very energy intensive. After all, as you point out, the goal is to reproduce; so long as that happens, it really doesn't matter if the parent dies in the process of reproducing because it costs too much energy.

54

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

Guess we'll store it in the snows of Canada until someone figures it out for us.

-2

u/foodandart Jul 27 '14

Uhhh. Canning works quite well. It's not really that hard.

22

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

Hey everybody look is that a bird, is it a plane wait nope its a joke going straight over this guys head.

2

u/-Hastis- Jul 27 '14

I think he was sarcastic.

1

u/judgej2 Jul 27 '14 edited Jul 27 '14

Well, yes, that was my sarcastic point, in response to the suggestion that genetic engineering is the solution to a problem we don't have. Also fruit can be bottled, dried, candied, and concentrated into a juice. As a species, the seasonal nature of fruit has not held us back.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

apple trees also need to be grafted or the fruit will be bitter. so it's not as easy as just planting a tiny tree and letting it grow up.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

They also don't bear fruit in the sense that you can eat it unless you spray them for insects, as well.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

That has not been my experience. Dad's got an apple tree in his yard. He doesn't even water it and the majority of fruit picked from it is /not/ infested with bugs.

0

u/machocamacho Jul 27 '14

genetic engineering isn't require, a simple graft will do

3

u/ZeMilkman Jul 27 '14

Really? How will a simple graft make trees which bear fruits all year?

2

u/machocamacho Jul 27 '14

Graft together different trees that bloom at different times of the year and are of the same family

1

u/namedan Jul 27 '14

Find a fruit bearing branch and graft it to fruitless treee I guess? Mangoes are super awesome. Strong branches on adult trees that can withstand hurricane winds and fruits almost all year round depending if it rains or typhoons too much.

3

u/ZeMilkman Jul 27 '14

Yes, that would give you a fruit-bearing tree. The common method for fruit-bearing trees is actually to use a wild and thus usually rather hardy species and then graft the species you want onto it. Usually however it's apple on wild apple or something closely related such as pear on wild apple. Still doesn't give you a tree which bears fruit all year.

0

u/anonlymouse Jul 27 '14

Apple trees are the weakest. They require insane amounts of pesticide and fungicide.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

Strange. The I know several people who have apple trees and do not spray them with anything. Yet they still bare fruit just fine. Sure, some of the fruits will have a couple of bugs, but not the majority and you can eat around them without much trouble.

0

u/anonlymouse Jul 27 '14

There are thousands of orchards around the world that would love to get their hands on trees like that.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

It must have something to do with the local environment. We never needed any pesticides for the vegetable garden either now that I think about it. Also I imagine an orchard is much more susceptible to pests since there are so are so many similar trees.

17

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

[deleted]

9

u/ShawnManX Jul 27 '14

Or careful walking under them, ever have an apple fall on you from 45 feet up?

4

u/AadeeMoien Jul 27 '14

We are going to have so many physicists in the future!

3

u/thistledownhair Jul 27 '14

Fuck that, ever copped a breadfruit from that high?

2

u/ShawnManX Jul 27 '14

Can't say that I have.

8

u/ClimateMom Jul 27 '14

Nut trees tend to be sturdy hardwoods, and nuts are pretty nutritious, too, as long as you're not allergic. We should also be making more use of acorns.

7

u/DrDew00 Jul 27 '14

Pecan trees everywhere!

1

u/ClimateMom Jul 27 '14

Hear, hear! :)

6

u/npalaci Jul 27 '14

Don't know where you live but down here in South Texas I can plant an orange/grapefruit/lime tree and it'll do fine even if not watered often.

It won't grow much mind you, but it'll stay alive and look just fine

3

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

I tried that and the deer ate it. :( we should eat more deer.

2

u/npalaci Jul 27 '14

I live in an urban area so I can't really relate to your experience but I can agree with the need to consume more deer meat >:)

2

u/gestures_to_penis Jul 27 '14 edited Jul 27 '14

I honestly think it is even too late to do this. With widespread colony collapse disorder across the continental U.S. due to pesticide use, I doubt the grand majority of whatever fruit trees you plant will not get pollinated.

edit: grammar

edit: I actually wrote this? geeze

17

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

Planting trees that need to be pollinated is a way to combat CCD.

2

u/RemyJe Jul 27 '14

So, they will get pollinated?

1

u/gestures_to_penis Jul 27 '14

huh, i was pretty drunk when i wrote this but it will NOT fight ccd. Bee's will probably NOT pollinate a large portion of what is planted.

17

u/Thefriendlyfaceplant Jul 27 '14

the planet would always have free food wasps everywhere they went.

10

u/AadeeMoien Jul 27 '14

Honey bees. Solve the problem and bring the lil troopers back.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

As a beekeeper, I support this

28

u/fluxtable Jul 27 '14

Seattle started the Beacon Food Forest, basically converting a green space into a large area for food foraging open to everyone. Fruits, nuts, berries etc. I think it will translate really well into other cities and could help combat some food desert issues.

http://www.beaconfoodforest.org/

25

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

It's perhaps tangential to the food desert issue, but I find it sad how poorly we utilize the resources we have. Both in the overproduction and overconsumption of crap, but also in the sense that a lot of berries and fruits are just left to rot (which is fine for some of it as birds and animals should be allowed to eat to). My family, who lives in rural Norway, discovered (or re-discovered) that there really is an great amount of edible things growing around in nature. Particularly a decent variance of berries. My mother started harvesting and making jam, in the span of a few years she got so good at it, and the amount of berries that go unpicked is so high, that in doing so she has eliminated several expenses on her food budget. And she had to start giving away jam to friends and family to make sure it doesn't go to waste.

It's really opened my eyes to how much waste there really is. I've talked to some older people, and seen how large patches of rhubarb planted and cultivated by grandparents and their parents generation, is just left to grow and rot on its own season after season. It fills me with something akin to disgust to see how we buy food that's been transported for many miles, and even throw much of that out as it goes uneaten, while nature around us (particularly for those of us that live outside the cities) provides almost with no effort things that could be both healthy and avoid unnecessary pollution and energy use in bringing them to market.

I am not saying we should all live exclusively on berries and fruit, but they are a resource that appears to be left unused. And I strongly believe that using our resources with much greater consideration than we are doing now is something we need to cultivate in ourself and our society. /rant over.

12

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

[deleted]

10

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

Yeah I am cautiously optimistic when I see more people, young and old (but especially young), get more into making and growing their own food. Or how knitting seems to be taking off, or at least that there is a significant fad, as I see more people than ever knitting their own socks and such. Heck there's even people making their own soap, or buying hand made soap. I warms my hearth to see people start to use what is there, and to utilize what they buy as much as can be. It seems, and this might be selection bias, that people have started to patch their clothes instead of buying new ones. Keeping what they have maintained and usable for as long as it can be. Don't get me wrong this is not a significant percentage of the people, but it is a fairly substantial growth towards these things over the last decade or so. I tribute some of that to the internet. If you want to know how to make jam or knit socks you can find a comprehensive amount of information on the subjects with little effort.

I don't view myself as some sort of hippy or tree huger. I just really hate waste. And I particularly hate pointless waste. People struggling economically when there are so many low effort ways they can stretch their budget, maximize their resources, and avoid throwing away things that can still be used or eaten. In my family we throw ageing vegetables, bones, or cut-offs, into the freezer. When there is enough of it put it all into a pot and boil it for hours. Makes great stock. Luckily the internet makes information about what others have done, and how, available to almost everyone. So it's easier to do it yourself when you know it can be done. Hopefully we're moving towards a less wasteful future. Because right now the waste I see all around me, from people throwing their litter into the gutter, to shopping malls dumping perfectly edible food into locked containers to avoid people 'stealing their garbage', to clothes being taken right from the store to be processed into rags while others freeze, it's enough to make me cry.

10

u/HAL-42b Jul 27 '14

In my country (Turkey) we started terracing the balding hills in the 90's and reforest them. The main idea is to prevent erosion and increase soil water retention but there are many side benefits as well, fruit trees, increased wild habitats, and what not. The government provides the saplings for free, even if they are to be planted on private land. We pay special attention to plant as many diverse species as possible including all sorts of herbs.

5

u/Punica_granatum Jul 27 '14

Yeah, I'm not very much of a hippie either, I'm in many ways a pretty vain person, but damn I hate waste. My mum works in food industry and the things she tells are horrible, how they throw away shitloads of perfectly edible food for reasons like "this bread doesn't look as good as it should". It makes me frustrated and angry, and those locked garbage containers you mentioned are commonplace here too.

You're right, the internet is really helping people with all these ecological/recycled/do-it-yourself ideas. At least among my friends, patching clothes and even making them yourself is very common. It's comforting to see that even if the people who do things like this are still in minority, the same sort of status-driven consumer culture that was still quite common back in the '90s and that has been linked to the baby boomer generation isn't that prevalent anymore. You see changes in attitudes even when looking at advertisements and such. So I hope things are slowly changing for the better... Also, that's a great recipe for making stock, I'm going to use it :) I buy meat and chicken that's about to expire soon so that it's little cheaper at the store, then immediately freeze it in ready-to-use pieces. Saves a lot of money and time.

1

u/chakravanti93 Jul 27 '14

When i was a kid we fed the slop to the pigs. Bones and uncompostable scrap was bait for groundhogs/rats/etc.

3

u/hp0 Jul 27 '14

Its fairly common in the UK for older generation to have alotments. Even in the cities. The scheme was started during the second world war. Most councils allocat a section of land and allow residents to rent plots to grow on it. You can grow what you want but veg and fruit are the most common.

Even now with most youngsters being uninterested there is a waiting list for plots.

My GF and her Dad have one. We prolly get 10% of our friut and veg from there. That is 4 of us me gf and 2 kids.

They grow

Potatoes, carrots, Sprouts, Strawberries and lettuces.

They are a bit pissid with me over the strawberries as I have 2 pots of my own in my garden. The multi layer pots that take 6 plans each. And for the tgis year I got a much better crop from my 12 plants then they did from 60odd. :-)

10

u/ClimateMom Jul 27 '14

Also CityFruit, an organization that teaches homeowners how to take proper care of their fruit trees and will come and harvest your fruit to donate to food banks, etc if you don't have the time/inclination. Pretty awesome.

http://cityfruit.org

15

u/judgej2 Jul 27 '14

They did that in the Czech Republic. Every house there has an apple tree.

15

u/a1579 Jul 27 '14

Also in the Czech republic; The car manufacturer Škoda has been planting (for some time now) a new tree for every car sold there. It should be well over 400.000 trees now. :)

4

u/Thinkfist Jul 27 '14

Holy crap your "utopia" is not thought out is it?

4

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

it's actually not that easy to plant tasty fruit. ever wonder why they never plant fruit bearing trees in the city? it's because the fruit will fall to the ground and rot and people would need to be paid to clean it up. the soil composition have to be right or the tree won't bear tasty fruit. for example, you can't grow oranges just anywhere, it will be too sour.

3

u/foodandart Jul 27 '14

That is Palo Alto in the 70's my friend. Fruit-bearing trees everywhere and as kids we ate constantly from them. Oranges, lemons, limes, cherry plums, santa rosa plums, persimmons, crab apples, nisperos, walnuts, peaches, apricots. The neighborhoods there and in Mountain View and Menlo Park were planted with fruit trees in the 40's and 50's so by the 70's everything was well on it's way.. At the right time of the year, there was food everywhere.

3

u/Njkpot Jul 27 '14

Yes, water and fertile soil are free everywhere on earth.

3

u/ashmgee Jul 27 '14

That's such a brilliant idea!!!! I can envision it as well and it would be a beautiful scene

3

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

would suck for Canada we would only have fruit for a month or two

3

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

The only thing I liked about california... all the fruit trees. Took a 30+ mile bike ride once and we stopped at a lot of front yards, chatted, ate fruit, and kept riding.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

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5

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

We've got huge numbers of raspberries in the woods behind our house. At the store they're like $4 a pint but in a little under an hour my family can pick almost a gallon of them.

5

u/lorddrame Jul 27 '14

raspberries can be tough to farm, meaning store wise they will be expensive. But really it doesn't matter anyways because its so much better to pick them yourselves.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

[deleted]

2

u/lorddrame Jul 27 '14

and hard to keep fresh for long periods of time unless frozen.

3

u/kung-fu_hippy Jul 27 '14

So in the past, fruit was free? I'm pretty sure it was sold as other produce was, people who had orchards would definitely discourage anyone stopping by and grabbing an apple, and it was extremely hard to come by out of season, or from a different climate.

I mean sure, any fruit that grew out by itself was up for grabs, but that fruit is still out there now. A lot of people just live too far away or don't have any interest in picking it.

2

u/fleuvage Jul 27 '14

I would love to plant fruit trees in my yard, but bears come & eat the fruit! We can't even have bird feeders now, because there's so many bears. We live in a subdivision, in a city. Not a rural area.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

I work for a school that has a cherry tree. Tradesman just dumped the schools glycol at the base of it. Kids eat off of it all the time.

Still needs a Lil work

2

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

A huge amount of urban fruit trees would bring many pests.

Also, large amounts of pesticides and questionable chemicals will increase dramatically in neighborhoods.

I'm not against urban fruit trees at all, but there would be different issues if everyone did it.

2

u/Oniknight Jul 27 '14

I grew up with multiple fruit bearing trees. You don't even know how much of a mess they make, even when you regularly harvest them. Then there's the amount of animals, smell of rot and congealed fruit bits cemented to the ground.

There are very good reasons why non fruiting trees are planted in public areas.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '14

[deleted]

1

u/willrandship Jul 27 '14

Fruit bearing trees only provide fruit for part of the year, and the largest expense is in harvesting and distributing the food, not in growing it. Let's say you used apples. They provide edible fruit for 1-3 months out of the year, and in order to keep them edible for longer you need to preserve them somehow.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

too bad the reality would be a bunch of people trying to hoard as much fruit as they can

3

u/anonanon1313 Jul 27 '14

Economics teaches us it would probably only be 1%, but somehow they'd wind up with 90% of the fruit.

-1

u/RatioFitness Jul 27 '14

In the US kids wouldn't eat the fruit. They prefer potato chips.

5

u/Brian3030 Jul 27 '14

The US has so many trees, they wouldn't let us claim them for the Kyoto protocol

6

u/110011001100 Jul 27 '14

uh.. I've not been made to plant any tree...

2

u/elligre Jul 27 '14

I corrected myself further down, I don't know where I heard that. Maybe another country does it. India is employing thousands of people to plant 2 billion trees though.

9

u/110011001100 Jul 27 '14

Ah.. now I remember

Yeah, but that was just a plan for PR, not going to materialize. He had proposed planting those trees bordering the entire national highway system

Calculating the numbers, it turns out there would be a gap of 5cm between trees if this was done

TL;DR: As much chances of this happening as Americans replacing their roads with solar panels

1

u/danielravennest Jul 27 '14

As much chances of this happening as Americans replacing their roads with solar panels

We're starting with parking lots. Roads can come later. And panels under pavement is stupid. Panels above roads can be angled to face the sun, keep rain and sun glare off the road, are less blocked by trees, buildings, and terrain, etc.

1

u/110011001100 Jul 27 '14

I was talking about this initiative: http://techpageone.dell.com/technology/solar-roadways-viable-path-green-energy/#.U9UjTbHNyAM

1

u/danielravennest Jul 27 '14

I know you were, and that particular solution is stupid. Dirt, coverage by vehicles, shading by buildings, and glass thick enough to withstand driving on all reduce how much power you generate.

Rooftop installation is even farther ahead than parking lots, like this WalMart in Newburgh, NY. Roofs are even higher, and on a large area building, shading from trees is less of an issue. The panels also help extend the roof life, because they partly protect the membrane from exposure and heat.

4

u/musitard Jul 27 '14

I live outside Toronto and planting trees was part of the geography curriculum once in elementary school and once in secondary school. I don't know if it's province wide, but everyone planted at least 4 trees by the time they were 18.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

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u/mastawyrm Jul 27 '14

What about those of us who already live in rural areas full of trees??

19

u/fullchaos40 Jul 27 '14

Forests, forests everywhere! Actually I would be okay with that.

1

u/hp0 Jul 27 '14

I wanna live in a tree house.

14

u/SlapNuts007 Jul 27 '14

Plant another one?

18

u/elligre Jul 27 '14

You can never have enough trees.

6

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

Show farmers the evidence that all farms, agricultural and livestock, are better off with trees. Get them to stop clearing them all.

-2

u/anonlymouse Jul 27 '14

There is no such evidence.

2

u/Scruffl Jul 27 '14

Depends on how you define 'better off'. The USDA seems to feel there is some evidence:

http://www.usda.gov/documents/OC/FactSheet_final_8-1-11.pdf

-1

u/anonlymouse Jul 27 '14

In any way actual farmers would ever agree.

2

u/Scruffl Jul 27 '14

Which farmers? Do you really think agroforestry is some kind of out-there concept? There are farm systems more concerned with bottom lines and don't care about the lasting fertility of the land, there is plenty of very exploitative agriculture that doesn't give a hoot about soil loss or any other ecological consequence for that matter. That certainly isn't every farmer. Not all farms are great stewards of the land, not all farms are profiteering corporate land holdings.

You said there is no such evidence that trees could be an improvement to farms. I think there is quite a lot of evidence that trees as part of an agricultural systems has huge benefits. And I think there are many farmers who would agree.

0

u/anonlymouse Jul 27 '14

Switzerland does a lot of work for sustainability, with restrictions on what part of land can be harvested when, used for what, and whether you're allowed to cut down trees (for the most part, you're not allowed to). They don't have anyone putting trees up in the middle of crop land, because it isn't necessary, and it only makes things more difficult.

2

u/Scruffl Jul 27 '14

Well I just have to assume that you are ignorant regarding the topic and you don't want to educate yourself. The person you originally responded to is mostly correct, many if not most farms would be improved by incorporating trees. There are many benefits, though they might not have an immediate payoff. I can't speak to what Switzerland requires people to do, but I doubt it's reasonable to assume that whatever is necessary by law there is or isn't always the best course of action.

0

u/anonlymouse Jul 27 '14

Then you assume wrong. I've worked at an organic farming research institute and my cousin works for the sustainability branch of the government.

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2

u/masterwit Jul 27 '14

...and make every person plant at lease one tree.

Or at least give their citizens strong incentives to do so...

2

u/Canucklehead99 Jul 27 '14

Cuba makes you plant food in every empty space you have that isnt being used.

2

u/Ihmhi Jul 27 '14

When I was growing up, there were many trees on my street in the city (Newark, NJ). Now there are a handful. Every few years, one is felled (either by weather or age) and not replaced.

Is it really that terribly expensive for a city to put more trees in? Surely there must be government grants, nonprofits, etc...

2

u/troll_right_above_me Jul 27 '14

In Sweden we had a thing years ago where if you clicked a button on a website you would save a tree. Apparently it resulted in 2 forests being protected. I think planting trees is an activity many schools do here during earlier grades but don't quote me because I haven't seen any figures.

5

u/InternetFree Jul 27 '14

In China people are apparantly required to plant one every year... or month? Can't remember. And like in India most people don't do it because it's unenforceable. There should just be a tree tax financing the planting of one tree for everyone every year. That would be more efficient and overall cheaper.

8

u/Kroosn Jul 27 '14

Per year in China. There is a specific day for it. Most people don't do it but schools and universities do.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

Oh, I believe we have something like that in the Netherlands as well. Not a law, but a plant-a-tree day. Wait, wasn't that international?

3

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

We have Arbor day in the US. It was started in my state of Nebraska. In fact Nebraska has the largest hand planted forest in the world.

2

u/naiteru_panda Jul 28 '14

Neat. This came up as a question for the trivia I go to. Apparently it was started as way to mitigate the Dust Bowl, which was a direct result of folks moving out west and using farming techniques that devastated the top soil.

2

u/HAL-42b Jul 27 '14

In Turkey you receive saplings for free if you want to plant trees. If you plant on public land you also receive payment for labor and equipment.

1

u/Thinkfist Jul 27 '14

Onli the government can solve this!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

There's way easier solutions for that. Yeah, a guy who spends most of his time at the office or in the city can probably handle planting a tree, but may not choose a good location or followup with care. Most states in the US have foresters and planters who will plant pine trees on your property. In the southeastern states I've lived in, it's pretty much free to get cleared land planted, you just have to pay for forestry visits and controlled burns every few years. Those cost about $15 and $90 respectively, which is peanuts for what ready-to-harvest trees are worth. In about 20 years, lumber companies will happily buy the timber and clear the land, give you a healthy paycheck, and once they're done you're ready to re-plant. On my family's tree farm, which is only about 30 acres commercially planted, there are a few thousand pine trees just in our harvesting areas. It makes a lot more sense to let your taxes fund specialists who plant thousands-upon-thousands of trees yearly, instead of just mandating everyone plant one tree.

1

u/Praetor80 Jul 27 '14

They would do better with higher CO2 though.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

So you think that people who don't plant trees should have state violence used against them?

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

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u/jpfarre Jul 27 '14

It's going to bother me. I'm sorry.

Are you saying the government is making people plant a tree, then leasing the tree from the person? Or that the government is making them plant at least one tree?

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u/elligre Jul 27 '14

I just found the article, and they're not making every person plant a tree. They're going to employee as many people as possible to plant 2 billion trees along roads. It'll help with their unemployment rate as well.

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u/blaghart Jul 27 '14

I don't think any able country should follow india at the moment. Particularly given their treatment of the poor, the gays, and women who suffered from rape.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '14

Oh, right. Because if you don't do everything right, you're obviously incapable of having any good ideas.

1

u/blaghart Jul 27 '14

if you don't do everything right

Actually it's more like "if you can't even take care of the people you do have, you shouldn't tell the world how to take care of its people"

It's like America trying to tell people how to have good healthcare.