Saving the environment

one tree at a time.

The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is attempting to set a world record by planting 10 million trees in a single day on Tuesday- July 31. It is an effort to be applauded whether they set the record or not. The previous record by the way is 852,587 trees, planted in 6,284 locations in Tamil Nadu state in 2006.

Trees and vegetation provide us with the oxygen we breath. Just as important, trees and vegetation inhale the carbon dioxide we exhale. It's a nice cycle as we provide what the other needs to live.

But as the earth's population of humans continues to increase, the earth's population of trees continues to decrease. That isn't a formula for success. We hold the future of the world in our hands today. It is nice to see the reforestation effort by India and others.

There are no easy solutions to the world's problem with environmental pollution. Countries that are poor are often asked to bear a larger portion of the social costs of preventing deforestation. Why? Because the richer nations have already cut their trees and profited by it -- at least in some forms -- while the poorer nations did not and still have their trees. They are now asked to not cut theirs so that the damage can be halted. The solution? Support reforestation and support efforts to slow down the cutting of the rain forest and other old wood forests that remain. But recognize we are asking those nations who have the rain forests such as brasil to do what many of our nations did not -- protect our forests.

Planting trees like the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is doing is a step in the right direction. If the world is to survive, we must learn to live in harmony with nature. We must give back and not just take. Economic interests of today must be weighed and balanced against the costs to the future generations of tomorrow. And those asked to make the economic sacrifices of today, should in some way be compensated. But the costs to the environment of economic development should never be ignored. We should all bear the burden of saving the environment.

So say a big Thank You to India and its officials for bearing some of the burden we all owe to life here on Planet Earth. And if you have the opportunity, plant a tree.