And, of course, the benefits of planting trees
What is Arbor Day?
When a U.S. president chooses their presidential cabinet, they need to make some of the most challenging decisions in their White House tenure. Unless they are abruptly fired or politely let go, the individuals in the cabinet help guide the President in making the best decisions based on their areas of expertise. So, who can the president trust to do the best job? Who has the best mindset? Who is even qualified for the role? Surprisingly, choosing the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture appeared to be an easy decision for Grover Cleveland. One of the candidates had such a love for agriculture that he created an entire holiday centered around trees--Arbor Day.
Before Nebraska had gained its statehood in 1867, a young man named Julius Sterling Morton, along with his wife Caroline, purchased 160 acres of land in Nebraska City where they began their tree-planting legacy. In fact, Morton was so enthralled by the world of trees that he took his passion to the page and began explaining the benefits of trees in the Nebraska City News, Nebraska’s first newspaper. Luckily, after realizing the lack of trees around them upon reading Morton’s articles, many in Nebraska City became interested in trees and their importance. Thus, after proposing a day dedicated to planting trees in Nebraska City to the city’s agriculture board on January 7, 1872, Arbor Day became a tradition on April 10 of the same year. Soon, it was decided that Arbor Day would be celebrated on April 22 to both commemorate Morton’s birthday and postpone the festivities in favor of a more suitable climate in which to plant trees.
After a few decades, Arbor Day reached every single state--besides Delaware--and even Japan, Europe, Canada, and Australia. This led President Theodore Roosevelt to say that Arbor Day should be celebrated “thoughtfully” as the need for trees would become near exponential over time, a testament to just how much of a conservationist Teddy Roosevelt truly was. Today, Arbor Day is celebrated on the last Friday of April and is even recognized as a national holiday. In addition, Morton now stands in the National Hall of Fame as the “Father of Arbor Day.” (1).
MrBeast, #TeamTrees, and the Arbor Day of Today
Today, Arbor Day may not be at the top of the list for many when it comes to celebrating holidays, but it does have a new mascot that could get people, especially young people, excited to learn more--a 22-year-old YouTuber named Jimmy Donaldson who is better known as MrBeast. MrBeast was born on May 7, 1998, in a city fittingly called Greenville, North Carolina (perhaps he knows a bit about Venus Flytraps as well…) After dropping out of college in late 2016 to pursue a career making YouTube videos, he went viral in only a few months after uploading a video of himself counting to 100,000 in 44 hours (2, 5). Nowadays, MrBeast uploads videos once a week. Many of them are rather strange, like spending 24 hours in slime, but many are generous in nature like giving away 10,000 Christmas presents to kids (3, 4). One of his most ambitious projects appeared in late 2019.
After reaching 20 million subscribers on YouTube, fans of MrBeast urged him, with the help of memes, to formulate a plan to plant 20 million trees; thus, the #TeamTrees campaign was created. Partnering with the Arbor Day Foundation’s reforestation program to pursue the goal, MrBeast decided that on the official #TeamTrees website, visitors would be able to donate $1 to plant one tree. With many media influencers spreading the word of #TeamTrees, the project was immediately a hit! Visitors of all kinds contributed--average people, fellow YouTubers like Pewdiepie (who donated a comedic $69,420), former NASA engineer Mark Rober, and Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke. Lutke earned the top spot on the #TeamTrees leaderboard for donating $1,000,001, one more dollar and tree than Elon Musk (7). The project truly is a testament to the inspirational power that social media and its influencers hold as well as the influence of educating others on the importance of environmentalism as #TeamTrees was able to reach its goal within 2 months (6).
MrBeast expressed that the goal of planting 20 million trees was to help combat climate change, and like every other project with similar goals, both MrBeast and the Arbor Day Foundation received their fair share of backlash and criticism. After people told him that the goal of 20 million trees was not going to magically fix climate change and global warming, MrBeast responded in a tweet stating that they were aware of the fact, but “at the end of the day 20 million more trees is better than 0!” and that the project was created “because doing nothing is how we got here!” (8).
In response to other criticism, Danny Cohn, the director of the Arbor Day Foundation’s public relations department, explained that they would be working with the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, and the National Association of State Foresters to prevent the influx of invasive species caused by the introduction of new trees and to plant trees in the best places possible to ensure their safety and survival. “We’re just not planting and walking away,” Cohn explained in an interview with The Verge (8). While the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down a portion of tree-planting projects, hard work is still being done to ensure that all 20 million trees are planted.
What is Global Warming and Climate Change?
As MrBeast pointed out, planting trees may not stop climate change in its tracks, but it is a step in the right direction. Climate change, more commonly referred to as “global warming” has sparked debate for many decades in both America and across the world. The many people who listen to science and the facts of the climate change issue consistently battle with those who choose not to believe the facts, as if not believing facts has ever been a good solution to things. Fossil fuels are one of the main causes of climate change and global warming, and they are referred to as nonrenewable energy, meaning once they have been used, they cannot be used again. Fossil fuels have been given that name due to many prehistoric life forms, like giant prehistoric ferns and marine wildlife, dying hundreds of millions of years ago, getting buried by water and dirt further and further under the ground, and being heated and pressurized so much they were turned into modern fuel sources like coal, oil, and gas (8).
Formed by the elements carbon and hydrogen, fossil fuels are hydrocarbons used to produce energy, as gas does in automobiles, heat in households, and large engines in industrial plants. When the hydrocarbons are burned, their chemical bonds are broken, releasing heat energy and creating a new compound--Carbon Dioxide (CO2) (9). When carbon dioxide is released into the air, it becomes trapped by the layer of water vapor over the atmosphere. When CO2 is trapped in the atmosphere, the earth becomes warmer as the compound both absorbs long-wave radiation (heat) and reflects it to the earth’s surface (11). Because it is extremely difficult for the compound to pass through the layer of water vapor, it bounces back and forth between both surfaces--the earth and the vapor--producing heat for 300-1,000 years (12).
Earth’s warming, caused by CO2 and other similar compounds, will only increase over time if the entire world does not cut back on fossil fuel use. In a way, it would make sense to commit modern-day life and industry to renewable energy as eventually, that will be all there is left to use.
So, in this discussion of climate change, how do trees make an impact? Are MrBeasts’ intentions worthwhile?
Trees vs. Climate Change
Trees battle climate change and global warming simply by following a process used by all plants called photosynthesis. Photosynthesis means “putting together with light”, and it is a process that converts the sun’s rays into chemical energy (13). First, water finds its way into the leaves and comes into contact with chlorophyll. Then, carbon dioxide comes into the leaves through pores, causing the carbon dioxide to react with the water to create the chemical energy known as glucose which is then converted to adenosine triphosphate through cellular respiration where basically, the bonds in the materials break and reform to create new materials (14). After this chemical reaction takes place, the tree releases oxygen for humans and animals to breathe--enough oxygen to provide up to four people with a day’s supply (15).
The scientific equation for photosynthesis is as follows: 6CO2 + 6H2O → C6H12O6+6O2. This equation reveals that “the reactants, six carbon dioxide molecules, and six water molecules, are converted by light energy captured by chlorophyll (implied by the arrow) into a sugar molecule (glucose for the tree/plants) and six oxygen molecules (the product that is released)” (16). Look at the molecule again--6 CO2 molecules are involved. That is six carbon dioxide molecules being drawn in through leaves by every tree on earth when there is sun. There are an estimated 3.04 trillion trees in the world and unfortunately, there is no real way to average out how many leaves are on the average tree as trees come in all shapes and sizes. Still, that is 3.04 trillion trees performing photosynthesis every time there is sunlight, taking in carbon dioxide, and releasing oxygen for humans and animals to breathe for their entire lives (17).
Trees are, according to Penn State University, “without a doubt the best carbon capture technology in the world” with a tree’s wood being “an incredible carbon sink” as it lasts for years, takes years to break down, and is made of 100% carbon. Even when a tree dies, it still holds the carbon inside for a time. By keeping trees standing, we are enabling them to take in and store carbon dioxide there for a while. Breaking it down further, forests made up of young trees are excellent at carbon capture because a younger tree is able to more rapidly capture carbon.
However, as the younger trees fight for resources and living space, some die, thus releasing carbon into the atmosphere. Therefore, forests made up of “middle-aged trees” are actually better at capturing carbon; think of a very large, very healthy extended family. Yes, some of the older trees may die, but younger trees soon replace them. But luckily, in middle-aged forests, more trees are growing compared to dying, increasing carbon capture. In much older forests, the carbon-capturing ability is lower (by just a small amount) than in young and middle-aged forests. However, larger trees make it difficult for new trees to grow due to canopy cover and the lack of sunlight coming through to the ground (18). This information means it is important for people to plant trees with a plan in mind to ensure that there is a healthy mix of young, middle-aged, and old trees in a forest--something MrBeast and #TeamTrees are no doubt doing due to the number of eco-friendly organizations at their assistance.
Trees, according to TreePeople, also hold many other benefits like reducing violence by reducing the level of fear in an area, providing shade to those outdoors, cooling city streets and neighborhoods by an average of 10º F in Los Angeles and other cities, and increasing business traffic as, simply put, trees create a much nicer area and environment for people to enjoy (19). Still, humans have caused deforestation at an alarming rate, which is why it is important to support companies and corporations that do not obtain products through means of deforestation and support laws like the Endangered Species Act, the Wilderness Act, the Lacey Act, and Roadless Rule. These regulations bar large companies from creating and selling illegal wood products, support the use of products made from recycled materials--products that are truly eco-friendly and do not involve cutting a tree down to increase production--and, of course, encourage activism and efforts against policies and figures that only increase climate change and global warming (20).
So, in the end, was planting 20 million trees beneficial? Yes, of course! The number 20 million means that there are 20 million more individual sources of carbon capture, oxygen, and even education as to why trees are important in our everyday lives. Tomorrow, Friday, April 30th, is the 149th Arbor Day and, with that, the 149th chance to plant a tree, or, at the very least, educate others as to why they should do so and inspire them to live happier, healthier, more eco-friendly lives.
Yesterday
was Arbor Day 2021.
But that doesn't mean you can't
celebrate and do your part. Go out and
love your local trees. Have fun! Go outside
and plant a tree! Inspire someone else
to plant a tree! Draw a picture of a
tree! Hug a tree! Read more
articles about trees!
You know
that trees
deserve it.
3.04 billion trees
are all around us, giving us many opportunities to love a tree. Do something to thank a tree!
Happy Arbor Day!
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