This Machine Kills c02

That's the headline on the Guardian Weekly cover and the "machine" is a tree.  The Guardian article (written by Damien Carrington) says that "planting billions of trees across the world is by far the biggest and cheapest way to tackle the climate crisis".  It goes on to say that a worldwide tree planting program "could remove two thirds of all the emissions that have been pumped into the atmosphere by human activities".

It is a rather hopeful prospect and seems simple, but of course, nothing is simple in reality, I guess.  In the same edition, it tells about the terrifying destruction of the Brazilian rainforest and that the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has said that the Amazon is "ours" (meaning it belongs to Brazil and the rest of the world should butt out) and that they can do what they like with it.  Here, at home, we have logged much of our old growth forests and we continue to debate the question of the environment vs. jobs as if you can't have one without the other.

But, when we all feel so helpless in the face of the climate emergency, it is good to know that there are things we can do ourselves, and planting a tree is always a hopeful exercise.  I have been doing a lot of work in the yard this month, and it is an amazing place.  We live right on the edge of the forest and if I don't get out there for a while, the forest starts moving in pretty quickly.  It sends out the blackberry bushes and ferns first and then follows with sprouts of a tree that I can't identify -- it has jagged edged leaves and produces a nut in a green casing that the squirrels love.  We have a large bush of this tree at the edge of the yard.  Anyway, I have a bag of play sand by our little fire bowl (which we don't use anymore because we are afraid of starting a fire that will spread and burn down all of Port Moody).  We used it to smother the fires in years gone by.  A brave shoot of whatever that bush is has grown up in the play sand.   I have decided to give the little guy a better chance and plant him in the soil by the other bush.  I hope that he flourishes and that each of us can figure out a way to plant a few trees.  If you don't have a yard, you can always give a donation to organizations like TreeCanada that plant trees or the Ancient Forest Alliance that tries to protect trees that are doing their work to save the planet right now!  Go out and hug a tree today!  You'll feel better, I promise you.