My son this morning told me about a book he was reading at school about the environment. He said he was worried about pollution from factories and carbon dioxide. He wanted to go to the shops and buy some explorer’s clothes and fly to?Madagascar to replant trees that had been cut down there. I said that flying might not be the best way to help the planet, but that we could invest in forestry online. I got some excellent responses on twitter when I asked for ideas there, such as looking at the Woodland Trust, by @martinhowitt. I also spent some time at Treebanker’s site?- you should too. Rainforest reforestation using pilot canopy trees is a very interesiing idea. I had no idea teak grew so fast.
Malee Dharmasena also pointed me at Woodland Trust’s Jubilee Woods effort- to plant six million new trees.?One of its activities is a story competition for kids to make up 60 word stories about trees, with the prize a trip to see the movie The Lorax, which is based on the Dr Seuss story – a warning about deforestation from 1961. ?As an avid twitter user, with its 140 character limit, of course I like the idea of a short story, constrained to 60 words. Also makes it easier for kids too. Anyway-= my boy has been working on ideas all afternoon, and here are two of them. Hopefully they will inspire someone to plant a tree. Haven’t decided what to do about that yet, but I am making a contribution to the Woodland Trust; I like its local focus.
Ha! My son just said: “that’s a lot of writing…” Well over to you then, boy:
“It would take one hundred years to replant forests all over Earth and so if any more cutting down happens, then in fifty years all the rain forests will have gone. we need to stop the carbon dioxide so that the air is healthier and the seas, so lets do it for it the environment. my favourite is an apple tree.”
I looked at the website to find trees to buy so that we could try and help the environment. there might not be enough trees in Madagascar. all the other rain forests have been cut down. rainforests are green green green green all over, green green green all over, it is very very wet, the trees help make the rain.”
So often it’s children who remind us of the important things in life. They see things as they are: simple. We have this problem, so let’s do our best to fix it. I really like the idea of the story competition for kids.