About Moving the Giants
Produced by The Story Group and Spoken Image, Moving the Giants follows one man, David Milarch, as he clones some of the world’s most ancient and largest living things – California’s coastal redwoods — and replants them in Oregon. Milarch, an arborist from Michigan, had a near-death experience that launched a radical restructuring of his life with a goal to harness trees’ incredible life force to generate healing and change. His efforts among the redwoods serve two purposes: First, as the planet warms and conditions for these redwoods change in their southernmost range, it is likely that many of these trees will die. By cloning and replanting them further north in places where they once thrived but have been clearcut, Milarch will preserve these majestic giants. Second, redwood trees are among the most effective carbon sequestration tools in the world. By planting these seedlings, Milarch takes part in a global effort to use one of nature’s most impressive achievements to re-chart a positive course for humanity.
Milarch’s efforts stand in stark contrast to government and private investors, who have spent billions of dollars on hair-brained carbon capture and storage technologies. This expensive quest to store carbon dioxide, a by-product of burning fossil fuels, is laudable, because once carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere, this potent heat-trapping gas is a key driver of global warming and related climate changes.
Other people have promoted elaborate “geo-engineering” solutions to our climate change dilemma. These include a scheme to spray atomized seawater into the atmosphere from solar-powered ships in order to change the way the atmosphere absorbs sunlight, and another far-fetched idea would shoot trillions of tiny mirrors into space to reflect heat.
The folly of these approaches is apparent if you consider two facts. First, reducing carbon pollution by rapidly expanding the use of renewable energy is paramount. Second, perhaps the best carbon capture and storage technology has been around for millions of years, is inexpensive to use, can be scaled up for global use using ancient technologies, and is, literally, a “shovel ready” project with the potential to reduce or forestall many projected climate change impacts. This astounding technology? Planting trees.
A Call to Action: Plant a tree and then some more
What can one person do in the face of global climate change? Individual actions to shrink our collective carbon footprint do add up: replacing light bulbs, insulating and attic, riding public transport, installing solar panels. But the scale of the problem also requires monumental action. We need to lever the power of governments to act, need to reward companies pioneering sustainable practices, need to replace the hydrocarbon status quo, need to treat each watt of energy and drop of water as the precious resources they are. We need to shift wholesale to renewable energy.
All important things. But to quote author Jim Robbins, “perhaps the single most important thing anybody can do right now is plant trees.”
The right tree, planted in the right place, will provide a suite of benefits, from absorbing carbon dioxide to filtering water to providing shade to lowering your utility bills and improving your mental state. Trees nurture the planet and the human soul in ways that cannot be duplicated but can be at least partially measured: Over a fifty-year lifetime a tree provides $162,000 in ecosystem services, including $62,000 in air pollution control and $31,250 in soil erosion, while it absorbs more than two tons of carbon dioxide. Whether you want to consider yourself a tree-hugger or an eco-technologist, by planting a tree or a dozen*, you’ll be doing the world a world of good.
Jim Robbins again: “Human beings and our machines will not save us. Our government will not save us. And science will not save us. If we wait for their solutions, we will run out of time. But if we harness some of the nearly boundless energy of the planet and the universe by planting trees, it starts into motion the healing and cleansing of the oceans and the atmosphere. And that’s what trees do.”
There are many good organizations that do excellent work planting trees and preserving forests around the world. Most U.S. states and even many cities have tree-planting programs. In addition to the organizations listed below, you can try Googling “tree-planting and YOUR STATE” to support other efforts. For a deeper dive into the science and politics of tree planting, read this article by Plant-It 2020’s Michael Thau.
