Plant a tree
Me and my 4-year old daughter were looking at a photo of a clear-cut forest recently. She looked at me, very seriously, and asked: “Mom, why are all the trees gone? It’s SOOOO sad…” Now, that’s a difficult question to answer in simple ways for a 4-year old. I tried the best I could to explain to her the different reasons why we cut down entire patches of forest (I was a little biased I admit). And then, she asked me: “But what can we do about it?” As a good educator, I didn’t want to give her the answer right the way, so I asked back: “I don’t know sweetie, what DO YOU think?” She thought about it for a few seconds, and enthusiastically, with a big grin, she replied: “I know! We can plant trees!” She was very proud of herself. And so was I. She’s a genius. Let’s all plant trees.
If you are interested in the state of the tropical rainforests, the past 12 months saw a big step back: a 69% increase in Amazon deforestation compared to last year according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (read: estimates most likely to be conservative). That’s 2.7% of the Amazon basin forest lost in ONE YEAR. The culprit: increased demand in meat and soy from international markets. Think about it when you eat your steak. We call this “the ripple effect”.
See http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080831/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/brazil_amazon_destruction for more information.