You were just given a plant by one of your colleagues as a gift on Earth Day, they gave one to everyone. Growing trees is easy, but keeping them alive is difficult; it is tedious and challenging, and you don’t have time for that. After some days, you just threw away the plant because it started dying. You were not sad that you threw away the plant because that iswhat most people would have done.
People are taught at a very young age that planting trees would stop many natural disasters caused by humans, but that is not true. Numerous factors contribute to climate change, but a lack of trees is not the most significant reason. Planting trees is easy, cheap, straightforward, and is the most effective way to reduce carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but it alone wouldn’t stop climate change.
On Earth Day, most people give each other trees because that’s what the media and school has taught us to do. In the media, many celebrities show themself planting a tree for Earth Day, and people follow their lead. According to BBC Future, the idea of planting trees is everywhere because people hope it will save us from climate change. Some governments and businesses spend tons of money just to plant trees.
Additionally, according to Science News, there are approximately three trillion trees globally, and too many trees could damage our environment. Many people like to grow trees, and it is admirable to know how many people want to help the environment, but they need to learn the correct way to do it.
Many emissions of gases are produced by burning fuels in factories, increasing the level of carbon dioxide, which is warming the earth. High carbon dioxide causes ice sheets to melt, which increases the water level, and that can cause many natural disasters such as hurricanes. According to the BBC Future, this problem’s solution is to stop all greenhouse gases and use more environmentally friendly ideas like solar power, instead of burning fossil fuels.
Cutting down trees can cause carbon dioxide to be released since the carbon dioxide that is stored goes back into the atmosphere. Planting trillions of trees has been criticized by scientists; they don’t believe that it can save us from climate change.
According to New Scientist, four billion tons of carbon dioxide were released into the atmosphere in 2017 by cutting down trees alone. This means that if we planted more trees than needed, eventually, they would die and release tons of carbon dioxide, causing warmer temperatures.
According to US EPA 2019, industrial greenhouse gas emissions accounted for 23 percent of total U.S. gas emissions, making it the third-largest contributor to U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, reducing our energy use by switching to LED lights and not using heat or decreasing electricity usage could help the environment tremendously.
Schools, media, businesses, and governments should not give false information that may hurt the environment in the future. Schools should teach students that there are more climate change compounds and other ways to solve them than planting trees. Having too much of anything can be harmful, and that involves trees.
