Now we Children save the World Tree b y Tree - Plant-for-the-Planet

Felix & Friends
Tree
by Tree
A tree planted for every book sold
An inspirational and »how-to« book
Now we Children save the World

“When I read how much CO2 we
are putting into the air with our
cars, airplanes, houses, factories,
and power plants and what
carbon dioxide and the other
green house gases do to the
atmosphere, it made me really
upset. With the warming of the
climate, the melting of the
glaciers, and rising of the oceans
– our future is being destroyed,
and people are just simply sitting
around discussing it! Why aren’t
we doing anything?”
Everything began in 2007 with a
simple school presentation from
the then 9-year-old Felix. In it he
explained to his classmates how
the greenhouse effect works and
what the terrible consequences
of the resulting rise in global
temperatures will be –
if we humans don’t do something
to stop it.
However, Felix had also read
about how trees can capture
these dangerous greenhouse
gases. So he ended his presentation
with the words, “Let us plant
a million trees in every country on
Earth!”
That was the beginning of the
student initiative Plant-for-the-
Planet, which has since then
developed into a truly global
movement. Through this
campaign, the children are not
only planting trees all over the
world. As young world citizens
they are fi ghting for climate
justice.

Felix Finkbeiner und seine
Freunde haben es sich mit
Plant-for-the-Planet zum Ziel
gesetzt, in jedem Land der Erde
eine Million Bäume zu pfl anzen.
Unterstützt werden sie dabei vom
Umweltprogramm der Vereinten
Nationen (UNEP).
„Warum tun wir nicht endlich,
was die Klimaforscher empfehlen?
Wenn wir in 40 Jahren
er fahren, dass es weniger
schlimm wurde, dann haben
wir nichts falsch gemacht.
Wenn wir heute aber nicht
handeln und als 50-Jährige
fest stellen, dass die Klimaskeptiker
falschlagen, wird
es zu spät sein.“
Felix Finkbeiner and his friends
have created Plant-for-the-Planet
in order to reach the goal of
planting a million trees in every
country in the world. They are
supported by Environmental
Programme of the United Nations
(UNEP).
“Why haven’t we done what the
climate-scientists recommend?
Even if we learn in 40 years that
climate change wasn’t so bad,
what we’re doing today will still
remain the good and right thing.
Because if we don’t do something
now and instead learn when we’re
50 years-old that the climateskeptics
were wrong, then it will
already be too late.”

The children and young people of this world do not want
to wait any longer for adults to fi nally begin to tackle the
impending global challenges of our day. And they have
much to do: They want to save their future – Tree by Tree.
“We have written this book primarily for people like us –
kids and teenagers. Because we are the ones who will
have to pay for it if adults cannot fully solve these global
problems.
With this book we want to show, how great it is to get
involved. We will tell you our story: why we act and do
what we can so that we can have a positive future. We
want to show you how exciting it is to learn more about
our world, the climate, and the links between them – and
how much fun it is, working together with kids from all
over the world.
Of course we will also tell you, how you can join in with us
and become active yourself. Because talking alone
will not stop the melting of the glaciers:
Stop Talking. Start Planting.”
“We cannot leave the shape of
our future alone to the adults!”
Felix Finkbeiner

German edition
available as book
at
Original texts: Veronika Straaß and Claus-Peter Lieckfeld
Original texts, concept and editing: Ulrike Völkmann and Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation
Cover, illustration, layout and type setting: Carsten Abelbeck
Translation: Austin Warren
The German edition is available at oekom verlag, München
www.oekom.de
Felix & Friends
Tree
by Tree
Now we Children save the World

Introduction ....................... 6
1. Why we children have to act
Felix explains:
How everything began .............. 11
A presentation with consequences ......... 12
We are growing! ...................... 14
Prominent people with Plant-for-the-Planet .... 16
Wangari Maathai:
Mama Miti – the “Mother
of the Trees”. ...................... 19
Why Wangari took action ................ 20
Green Belt Movement. .................. 22
Why did I join? ..................... 26
2. What does climate change mean?
Climate in crisis. ................... 30
Clara interviews the
weatherman of ARD .................... 30
Climate change before our time ........... 33
What makes the climate ................. 34
The cycle of carbon dioxide .............. 35
Where coal and oil come from. ............ 35
Smoking chimneys. .................... 36
Man as the cause of climate change ........ 37
What is climate justice? ............ 42
Emissions trading, the simple thing
that is hard to do. ..................... 44
What trees do against
the climate crisis. .................. 46
3. What we can do
What everyone can do …
Or: Protecting the climate at home ... 52
What’s wrong with traffic? ................ 52
Energy eaters in the home ............... 53
The electricity supplier switch? ............ 55
How much CO2 is on my plate? ............ 55
About what you can do …
Or: About school
and school for life .................. 58
Tree by Tree …
Or: The big planting party ........... 66
How you can find partners to join in. ........ 68
Where you can plant ................... 68
How you can find the best trees ........... 69
How and where to get the trees ........... 70
How you can bring attention
to your planting party. .................. 71
How to turn planting into a real party. ....... 72
How your trees count. .................. 73
Trees for the south …
Or: 10 € = 10 trees. ................ 74
Namibia (Africa). ...................... 75
Ecuador (Südamerika) .................. 76
Democratic Republic of the Congo (Africa) .... 76
Costa Rica (Central America) ............. 77
Malaysia (Asia) ....................... 77
A good answer to a dumb argument! ....... 78
“Run for Trees” ....................... 80
Our planet needs
Climate Justice Ambassadors
Or: The Plant-for-the-Planet
academy ......................... 84
Module 1: Introduction
Or: Hearing and discussing a Climate
Justice Ambassador’s speech ............. 86
Module 2: Climate crisis
Or: Discussing the topic
of climate justice ...................... 88
Module 3: Rhetoric & style
Or: Learning how to give
short presentations .................... 89
Module 4: Planting actions
Or: Planting and planning for more ......... 91
Appendix
Module 5: World Café
Or: We are active! ..................... 92
Module 6: Our first presentation ........... 93
We are the children of the World …
Or: Our global planting-community ... 95
4. Our Vision
Contact Information ................... 110
Acknowledgements ....................111
Image credits ........................112
Our Vision …
Or: Thinking and
acting as world-citizens ............ 102
The climate summits .................. 104
We should learn from recent history! ....... 105
What gives us courage? . ............... 106
Contents

Introduction
The climate crisis is threatening our Earth, and we humans
are responsible for it. If we continue to act as we have up
to this point, then it results in catastrophic consequences.
Yet, there is far too little being done to stop this.
We children want to change that – especially with this book!
We have written “Tree by Tree” primarily for people like us – kids and teenagers.
Because we are the ones who will have to pay for it if adults cannot fully solve
these worldwide problems.
However, we are also consciously directing this book at adults – to parents,
teachers, politicians, entrepreneurs, and other “decision-makers” in our society,
because we want them to help us in what we are doing.
Our student-initiative Plant-for-the-Planet was very small when it began in 2007
– but since then we have become a global movement. And as opposed to most
adults, who are only willing to talk about climate change, we are actually doing
something about it!
We would first like to tell you how Plant-for-the-Planet began, and how it has
developed into a really big (and exciting!) movement within such a short amount
of time. You will learn what “climate change” means, as well as how much we
humans contribute to it, and what we can do in order to better protect our
environment.
You will see why it is so important that we children commit ourselves to more
climate protection and climate justice in this world. And we will explain to you
why we are planting trees to achieve these goals.
Naturally you can learn a lot of really exciting things too! For example: did you
know much air a single tree can clean and why? Did you know the difference
between the weather and the climate? Did you know how coal and oil are
formed? What CO2 is and the impact it has on our atmosphere, or why it is so
bad if the ice on Greenland and the Antarctic melts, or that there is a so-called
“World Climate Summit” every year? etc…
If there is something in this book that you don’t understand – for example a word
or a phrase that you’re not familiar with --, just ask your parents, your teacher, or
another adult. They are here, after all, to help us kids. Also, if you have internet
access, you could take a quick look there too.
You too can experience how great planting can be if you decide to join in and
Speaking of help: many adults helped us write this book for you. For all of their
help us!
With this book, we hope to give you the courage to do so.
hard work, we would especially like to say thank you to Melanie, Ulrike, Carsten,
Veronika, Claus-Peter, and everybody from oekom Publishers. Thanks!
Most importantly, we want to show you with “Tree by Tree” how easily you can
6 take part in what we are trying to achieve, and how much fun you can have doing
it!
7
Felix & Friends

Felix explains:
How everything began
Wangari Maathai:
Mama Miti – the “Mother
of the Trees”
Why did I join?
“It‘s the little things citizens do.
That‘s what will make the difference.
My little thing is planting trees.”
Wangari Maathai,
Nobel Peace Prize Recipient
and environmental activist
Why we children have to act
1.

Felix explains:
How everything began
Without my teacher this student initiative probably wouldn’t
exist today. It was she who thought that in 2007 it was hightime
for us students to start thinking about the climate crisis.
The winter of 2006-2007 was an unusually warm one, and my teacher suspected
that it could have something to do with global warming. In any case, she
felt that we students should at least do a little research about it on the internet to
see what we could find. I promised to give a presentation on the climate crisis
the following Monday. So that weekend I watched Al Gore’s film, “An Inconvenient
Truth” and I copied slides for my presentation out of his book, which my
grandfather had bought for me.
When I read how much CO2 we are putting into the air with our cars, airplanes,
houses, factories and power plants and what CO2 and the other greenhouse
gases* do to the atmosphere, it made me really upset. With the warming of the
climate, the melting of the glaciers and rising of the oceans – our future is being
destroyed, and people are just simply sitting around discussing it! Why haven’t
*
we done something?
On the internet I read about Wangari Maathai from Kenya. During her life she has
planted trees in many African countries and has also fought against the selfish
interests of the rich.* Then I had the idea that we kids could plant trees too!
Children all over the world could join in and
work together, like a big global family!
If Wangari Maathai can manage to make
sure that 30 million trees in Africa are
planted in 30 years, then we kids could
absolutely do it too, planting at least one
million trees in every country of the world,
right?
What exactly
greenhouse gases
are and why they
are becoming more
and more dangerous
for our climate is
explained on page
34.
* Learn more
10
about Wangari
Maathai on page
11
19.
Wangari planting one of
the thirty million trees.

The end of
the polar
bear was
(just) the
beginning.
Frithjof Finkbeiner
talks about his
son, Felix:
A presentation with consequences
The next Monday I gave my presentation in front of the class. I called it “The End
of the Polar Bear.” I told everybody about the greenhouse effect and what the
increase in CO2 has to do with the increase in climate temperature. I also spoke
about how trees bind CO2 and turn it into oxygen. Trees help to make greenhouse
gases harmless. Of course, I realized, there needs to be more trees – we
just have to make sure that it happens! So, at the end of my presentation I told
my classmates: “Let us plant a million trees in every country on earth.”
Since then we have been planting trees. To us and the world, each of them
stands as a symbol for climate justice. Because if an American puts out 40
times, and a European puts out 20 times as much CO2 in the air as an African,
then obviously the African should pay the least for it. Because if every person
had the right to put out an equal amount of CO2, then the African, who only
puts out 0.5 of a ton could sell the other 1.5 tons to somebody else, someone
who wants to drive a big car for example. This individual would then have to dig
a little deeper into their pockets if they want to drive a Lexus. In this case the
African would get more money because he or she would not be affecting the
environment as much as the others, and with this money they could do good
things like build schools and hospitals. This could ultimately help to change
the fact that over 30,000 people still go hungry every day, including countless
children.
At first I was amazed at how much interest I had
awakened in my class. My classmates thought that
it was a great idea and my teacher thought so too.
Two days later she let me give my presentation
in front of representatives from each class in the
school. And on Thursday I gave another presentation,
to the Director of the school! Pretty soon I was traveling with a laptop
to other schools, explaining what the climate crisis is and talking about my
tree-planting idea. At this time I was 9 years old.
The presentation at the school was really well received. Probably
because there are a lot of children who are really worried about
the climate crisis like I am and want to do something about it.
And maybe they feel like I do, that adults should stop talking and finally do
something. I think that if we children don’t find solutions and push adults to act
then nothing will happen for a long time! We kids have to work together! Then all
of the problems that we are currently facing will finally be within our grasp. The
climate crisis, our shrinking amount of resources, the loss of biodiversity, the
financial crisis, the conflict between the rich and the poor – all of this is probably
not solvable if everybody only thinks and acts as if their own country should have
every advantage. Clearly there can be no world contract when everybody only
thinks about him or herself. Only when we first see ourselves as a global family,
and only when we understand that the future isn’t divisible will we be able to
tackle all of these problems.
12 13
About Felix Finkbeiner
Felix was always an independent kid. Already at
7 years old he would travel alone every day from
our little town Pähl four hours with the train, bus
and tram system to Augsburg, because he abso-
lutely insisted on attending the international school
there. As his parents, it was a horrible time for
us. When he has taken to something, he is incred-
ibly determined and persistent. He is what we in
Bavaria call a “driller of thick wood,” or in High
German, a hardheaded individual, but in a good-
sense certainly.
When he was 9 years old and had the idea about
planting trees all over the world, we thought it
was really nice, but we didn’t really give it a lot of
meaning – that is, until early 2008 when we had a
key experience:
The Global Marshall Plan Foundation, which was
founded by me and my wife, had organized the
World Commons Forum in Berlin. A fantastic event
with a press conference, experts from all over the
world and many important and influential people,
but nobody from the press was there to be seen.
Not one! A month later Felix and his friends orga-
nized their own press conference in the Munich
Literature House, and people from the press stood
in line to get in! The story was reported and written
about 500 times! This was the point when we and
our foundation first understood how much power
children wield in this fight. But this fight is not over
economic growth, influence, or production figures.
It’s the fight over their future, their lives. Their
credibility and sincerity of purpose is something
that we adults often lack.

www.plant-for-the-planet.org
We are growing!
Many students had already joined our cause. The high-school graduates Gregor,
Sascha and Christian, who came to us from the Evangelical Academy in Tutzing,
made a website for us, over 100 students helped us to send letters to other
schools, both of my sisters Franziska and Flurina helped me, and my parents
too. We only had to find a name for our movement.
On the internet I finally discovered that in 2003 the UNEP had started a project
for kids called “Plant for the Planet” (By the way, UNEP is the abbreviation of
the United Nations Environment Programme, the department of the UN* which
is responsible for the protection of the environment). For a long time nothing
had really been done with this project – but WE wanted to do something and
immediately! Plant-for-the-Planet – the name matched perfectly with our plans.
*
Because everybody on Earth has to work together, an English name for our
organization makes sense. It’s the only way we could guarantee that people from
all nationalities could come together. We children want our voices to be heard!
Incidentally, Wangari Maathai matched our start with the UNEP with the launch
of her own “Billion Tree Campaign” for adults. Together, the adult and children’s
campaign is called “Plant for the Planet: The Billion Tree Campaign”.
UN (United
Nations) is a union
of many countries
from around the
world. Its main
tasks are: the
security of the free
world, observing
international law,
protection of human
rights, and the promotion
of international
cooperation.
On the 28 th of March, 2007, two months after my presentation,
we planted our first tree in front of my school.
Shortly afterwards other schools began to follow.
14 Reporters from newspapers and from radios came and wanted to know more
about our idea. In November of 2007 I gave my first large presentation, to
the Rotary Club in Weilheim, Germany. After I left for Weilheim it became really
hectic because I thought that I had left the notes for my speech behind. After the
presentation I finally found them though – in one of my socks! I had stuffed them
there so that I wouldn’t forget them at home … but ever since then I haven’t
needed my notes to give a presentation.
15
Our first tree was planted on the 23rd of April, 2008. However in just a year
I was able to announce at a press conference that we had already planted tree
number 50,000. The story of what we children had done for our own future
was reported everywhere: in newspapers, TV, radio, and on the internet. In
July, 2008, I traveled to Norway in order to give a presentation about climate
justice to over 700 children from 105 countries at the children’s conference
of the UNEP. Afterward the other children in the youth board of the UNEP voted
for me to join them. The board consists of 7 kids, each one representing an
entire continent. “My” continent is Europe. And my task is to explain to as many
people as possible that we absolutely need to do something against the climate
crisis, injustice and inequality, not sometime in the future, now!
Even in my wildest dreams I never thought that Plant-for-the-Planet would be such
a smash! But a very important part of my idea was that we kids would tackle
these problems together – including the fact that not only I, but also as many
other kids as possible would travel around, giving presentations and interviews,
organizing informational events and hosting tree-planting parties. Plant-for-the-
Planet is a message that needs ambassadors!
Today I am no longer the only person who is giving presentations and calling for
tree-planting parties. There are now over 1,200 Climate Justice Ambassadors all
over the world, children from over 70 countries working with Plant-for-the-Planet.
And people are really listening to us! Our idea is simply too contagious!
Alone I would have had no chance to answer every request for presentations and
interviews. We just simply had to have to more kids.
Together we can
achieve quite
a lot!

* More information
about these
academies and
everything that
you can learn at
one is on page
84.
Stop Talking.
Start Planting.
Initially many kids don’t trust themselves to begin such a task, but actually it’s
not a problem at all! They only have to learn the info about climate change as
well as how to present that information to other people. In the end of October in
2008 we invited a group of students to our first “academy” in a meeting house
in Sonnenberg, Germany. Every school in the state of Lower Saxony was allowed
to send 2 kids. Franziska, Gregor and I gave presentations at the academy and
explained our experiences to the students. And suddenly it didn’t seem like a
joke to them anymore, the idea that they too would be giving presentations in
front of other children, but also in front of adults, telling everybody that we finally
have to tackle these problems.
Since then quite a lot of these academies* have taken place, and not only in
Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, but also in other countries. Even in China!
Prominent people with
Plant-for-the-Planet
To make sure that our Plant-for-the-Planet movement spreads around the world
as quickly as possible, it needs many Climate Justice Ambassadors. Therefore
we have considered from the very beginning who might be our main supporters
– aside from us kids of course –, especially who would be well-suited for the job.
And who would be better than those people who are really well known?!
In a short amount of time we have won over many prominent* and influential
people to our cause, people who find our idea really great and who agree with
us about how important it is. Included in this group are musicians, athletes,
scientists, politicians, and many other important people in society.
They are, for example: Wangari Maathai (our role model!), Peter Muffay (musician),
Michael Stich (professional tennis player), Klaus Töpfer (scientist, politician,
and former Director of the UN Environmental Programme), Prince El Hassan bin
Talal of Jordan, Hans Küng (author and theologican), Gisele Bundchen (model and
actress from Brazil) and many more.
We aren’t saying that just to brag. We’re saying it because we are excited that
so many important and influential people are really supporting our cause! And we
are sure that we are going to find many, many more people who want to join in
too.
Peter Maffay
Rajendra Pachauri
David Suzuki
Albert II von Monaco
* Incidentally,
“prominent” refers
to “excellent” –
which naturally
makes us happy –
because it means
that we are able
to work alongside
so many “excellent”
people!
Do you want to also put your
hand in front of the mouth of
an important or famous person?
You can find more information
about “Stop Talking. Start
Planting.” on our webpage!
16 17
Wangari Maathai