Tree by Tree - Plant-for-the-Planet

This online book is equivalent to the original by oekom. It is only available through book on demand.
The original book was written in German.
This edition is released in accordance with the Creative Commons Licence as follows:
BY: www.oekom.de | www.plant-for-the-planet.org
NC: Non-commercial
NO: No derivates
6 th updated edition, July 2012
Editor: Veronika Straaß and Claus-Peter Lieckfeld
Concept and editing: Ulrike Völkmann
Cover, illustration, layout: Carsten Abelbeck
Translation: Austin Warren, Susanne Kloiber
Lector: Robyn Giblin, Renee Haufe
Revision: Pascale Sarah Naumann (Plant-for-the-Planet Secretariat)
Free for download on www.plant-for-the-planet.org and free for Print-on-Demand in all available languages.
This book edition was printed to be distributed to the children at the Plant-for-the-Planet Academies.
Printed on 100 percent recycled paper.
All rights reserved by Plant-for-the-Planet
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
Billion Tree Campaign. .................. 23
Plant-for-the-Planet Children´s Initiative ....... 24
Plant-for-the-Planet Billion Tree Campaign ..... 24
Why did I join? ..................... 26
2. What does climate change mean?
Climate in Crisis ................... 30
Clara interview with the
weatherman of a German TV channel. ....... 30
Climate change before our time ........... 33
The climate-makers .................... 34
The cycle of carbon dioxide .............. 35
Where coal and oil come from. ............ 35
Smoking chimneys .................... 36
Human as the cause of climate change ...... 37
What is Climate Justice? . ........... 42
Emissions trading, the simple thing
that is hard to do. ..................... 44
How trees help to counteract
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 at home ................. 53
Changing the electricity supplier? .......... 55
How much CO2 is on my plate? ........... 55
About doing it yourself …
Or: about school and learning for life 58
Tree by Tree …
Or: the big planting party ........... 66
How you can find partners to join in. ........ 68
Where you can find planting locations ....... 68
How you can find the best trees ........... 69
How and where to buy the trees ........... 70
How you can bring attention
to your planting party. .................. 71
How to turn planting into a real party. ....... 72
How count your trees. .................. 73
Trees for the South …
Or: 10 euro = 10 trees ............. 74
Namibia (Africa). ...................... 75
Ecuador (South America) ................ 76
Democratic Republic of the Congo (Africa) .... 76
Costa Rica (Central America) ............. 77
Malaysia (Asia) ....................... 77
A good answer to dumb arguments! ........ 78
“Run for Trees“ ....................... 80
Our planet needs Climate Justice
Ambassadors and Future Lobbyists …
Or: the Plant-for-the-Planet
Academies ........................ 84
Module 1: Introduction
Or: Listening to and discussing a Climate
Justice Ambassador’s speech ............. 86
Module 2: Climate crisis
Or: Discussing the topic of Climate Justice ... 88
Appendix:
Module 3: Rhetoric & Style
Or: Learning how to give short presentations .. 89
Module 4: Planting
Or: We plant and prepare new
planting actions. ...................... 91
Module 5: World Café. ....................
Or: We collect ideas how others
can be involved ....................... 92
Module 6: Work in school groups
Or: We take action! .................... 92
Module 7: Our first lecture .................
Or: We present our aims to adults .......... 93
4. Our vision
Contact information / Image credits . . . . . . . .128
We are the children of the world
Or: our global planting-community ... 98
We children are global citizens and
world politicians
Or: thinking and acting
as global citizens ................. 104
We should learn from recent history! . ...... 106
What gives us courage? ................ 108
What would we children do?
Or: our 3-Point-Plan to save
our future ........................ 108
We are Future Lobbyists ...
Or: how we are fighting for
our future . ....................... 112
The Heads of Government ...............112
The United Nations ....................113
Parliaments. .........................117
3-Point-Plan for states, cities, communities
and companies .......................118
Future-fee from the private sector ..........118
The Change Chocolate - Our first
Plant-for-the-Planet product. ..............119
Our first global political party .............120
Our democratic structure ................121
Contents

Introduction
The climate crisis is threatening our earth and we humans
are responsible. If we continue to act as we have up to
this point, it will result in catastrophic consequences.
Yet, there is far too little being done to stop this.
We children want to change that – through actions and with this book!
We have written “Tree by Tree” primarily for people like us, kids and teenagers,
because we are the ones who will pay for it if adults do not solve these global
problems.
However, we are also consciously directing this book to adults - parents,
teachers, politicians, entrepreneurs and other “decision-makers” in our society,
because we want them to help us in what we are doing.
Our Plant-for-the-Planet Children´s Initiative was very small when it began in
2007, but since then it has become a global movement. Compared to most
adults, who only talk about climate change, we are actually doing something
about it!
You too can experience how great planting can be if you decide to join in and help!
With this book, we hope to give you the courage to do so.
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.
You can also learn a lot of really exciting things. For example: do you know
how much air a single tree can clean and why? Do you know the difference
between weather and climate? Do you know how coal and petroleum (oil)
form? Do you know what CO2 is and the impact it has on our atmosphere?
And do you know why it is so bad if the ice in 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 children.
If you have internet access, you could also take a quick look there.
Speaking of help: many adults helped us write this book for you. For
all of their hard work, we would especially like to say thanks to Austin,
Carsten, Claus-Peter, Melanie, Pascale, Renee, Robyn, Sebastian,
Susanne, Ulrike, Veronika and everybody from Oekom Publishers.
Most importantly, we want to show you with “Tree by Tree”
how easily you can take part in what we are trying to achieve,
and how much fun you can have doing it!
We would first like to tell you how Plant-for-the-Planet began and how it
developed into a really big (and exciting!) movement within a short time. You
will learn what “climate change” means, how much we humans contribute
Felix and Friends
6 to it and what we can do in order to protect our environment.
7

Felix explains:
How everything began 11
Wangari Maathai:
Mama Miti –
the Mother of the Trees 19
Billion Tree Campaign 23
Why did I join? 26
“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 children initiative probably
wouldn’t exist today. Back in 2007, it was her
who first thought it was high time for us children
to start thinking about the climate crisis.
The winter of 2006-2007 was unusually warm and my teacher suspected that it
could have something to do with global warming. In any case, she felt that we
students should 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 emit 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 hasn´t anyone done
anything about it?
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. This gave me the idea
*
that we kids could also plant trees! Children
all over the world could join in and work
together, like a big global family!
Learn more
10
about Wangari
Maathai 11
on page 19.
If Wangari Maathai can manage to make
sure that 30 million trees in Africa are
planted in 30 years, then we kids should
also be able to plant at least one million
trees in every country of the world. Right?
Wangari planting one of
the thirty million trees.
* Greenhouse
gases and
why they are
becoming more
dangerous for
our climate are
explained on
page 34.

A Presentation with consequences
The next Monday I gave my presentation in front of the class. I called it, “The End
At first I was amazed at how much interest I had
awakened in my class. My classmates thought it
was a great idea and my teacher thought so, too.
of the Polar Bears.” I told everybody about the greenhouse effect and what the
Two days later she let me hold my presentation
increase of CO2 has to do with the increase in climate temperature. I also spoke
in front of representatives from each class in the
about how trees bind CO2 and turn it into oxygen. Trees help make greenhouse
school. And on Thursday I held the same presen-
gases harmless. Of course, I realized, there needs to be more trees – we just
tation once more, in front of the head of school!
have to make sure that they are planted! So, at the end of my presentation I told
Pretty soon I was traveling with a laptop to other schools, explaining what the
my classmates, “Let us plant one million trees in every country on earth.”
Since then we have been planting trees. Trough this we are setting an example
climate crisis is and talking about my tree-planting idea. At this time I was 9 years
old.
for climate justice. Compared to an African, an American puts out 40 times as
The presentation at the school was really well accepted.
much CO2 into the air and an European 20 times as much. If every person had
Probably because there are a lot of children who
the right to put out an equal amount of CO2, let us say 1.5 tons of CO2, then an
are really worried about the climate crisis like I am
African, who puts out only half a ton, could sell the rights for the other 1.0 ton to
somebody else, someone who wants to drive a big car for example. Individuals
and they want to do something about it, too.
would have to dig a little deeper into their pockets for this luxury. In this case the
And maybe they feel like I do, that adults should stop talking and finally do
African would receive more money for not affecting the environment as much as
something. I think that if we children don’t find solutions and force adults to
the others, and with the money they could do good things like build schools and
act, then nothing will happen for a long time! We kids have to work together!
hospitals. This could ultimately help to change the fact that over 30,000 people,
All of the bigger problems that we are currently facing can only be solved on a
mainly children, are dying of starvation and easily avoidable diseases every single
global level. The climate crisis, the shrinking amount of resources, the loss of
day. 30,000 in an incredible rich world.
biodiversity, the financial crisis, the conflict between the rich and the poor – all
of this is more than likely not solvable as long as everybody only thinks and acts
as if their own country should have the biggest gain. Clearly there can be no
global contract when everybody thinks only about themselves. Only when we see
ourselves as a global family, as global citizens, and only when we understand
that the future isn’t divisible, will we be able to tackle all of these problems.
12 13
The end of the
polar bears was
the beginning.
Frithjof Finkbeiner
talks about his
son, Felix:
About Felix Finkbeiner
Felix has always been an independent kid. Already
at the age of seven, he travelled alone every day
from our little village of Paehl for four hours on the
train, bus, and tram system to Augsburg and back,
because he absolutely insisted on attending the
international school there. For us parents, it was a
hard time. When he takes to something, he is incredibly
determined and persistent; he is what we in
Bavaria call a “thick wood driller” or in high-Ger
man, 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
thought– 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 to be seen there.
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! It was at this point that we and
our foundation first understood how much power
children wield in this fight. But for the children,
this fight is not over economic growth, influence,
or production figures, it is the fight for their future,
their lives. Their credibility and sincerity of purpose
is something that we adults often lack.

www.plant-for-the-planet.org
* The 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.
We are growing!
Many many students have already joined our cause. The high-school graduates
Gregor, Sascha, and Christian, who came to us from the Protestant Academy in
Tutzing, created a website for us, over 100 students helped us to send letters to
other schools. My sisters Franziska and Flurina helped me and also my parents.
Now the only thing left was 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 it 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 made sense. It is 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´s and children’s
campaign is called Plant-for-the-Planet Billion Tree Campaign.
On 28 th March 2007, two months after my presentation,
we planted our first tree in front of my school.
Shortly after, other schools began to follow.
Reporters from newspapers and from radios came and wanted to know more
about our idea. In November 2007 I gave my first large presentation to the
Rotary Club in Weilheim, Germany. The CEO from Toyota Germany was also
present. He came up to the stage and invited me in front of all the people to
hold a presentation for 1,200 Toyota car dealers in Cologne on 6th 14
December. I
accepted immediately.
15
Before I left for Cologne 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.
Our first tree was planted on 28th March 2007. However, in just a year I was able
to announce at a press conference that we had already planted 50,000 trees. The
story of what we children had done for our own future was reported everywhere:
in newspapers, TV, radio and on the internet. In June 2008, I traveled to Norway
in order to hold a presentation about climate justice in front of 700 children from
105 countries at the children’s conference of the UNEP. Afterwards the other children
in the Youth Board of the UNEP voted for me to join them. The Board consists
of 7 children, 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 crises with the climate, justice, and inequality, not
sometime in the future, but now!
Even in my wildest dreams I never thought that Plant-for-the-Planet would be
such a success! But a very important part of my idea was that we children 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 information events and hosting tree-planting parties.
Plant-for-the-Planet is a message that needs Ambassadors!
Together we can
achieve quite a lot!

* More information
about
these academies
and what you can
learn through
them is on page
84.
Today I am no longer the only person who is giving presentations and calling
for tree-planting parties. Now, all over the world, there are over 14,000 Climate
Justice Ambassadors, children from over 193 countries working with Plant-forthe-Planet.
And people are really listening to us! Our idea is contagious!
Alone I would have had no chance to answer every request for presentations and
interviews. We just simply had to have more kids.
Initially many kids don’t have the confidence to take over such a task, but
actually it’s not a problem at all! They only have to study the facts about climate
change and know how to present the information to other people. At the end
of October 2008, we invited a group of students to our first “academy” in a
meeting place in Sonnenberg, Germany. Every school in the state of Lower
Saxony was allowed to send 2 kids. Franziska, Gregor, and I held presentations
at the academy and explained our experiences to the students. Suddenly it didn’t
seem like such a strange idea that they could give presentations, not only to
other children but in front of adults, too. Now the children had the confidence to
explain to everyone how we can tackle these critical problems.
Since then quite a lot of these academies* have taken place, and not only in
Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, but also in Belgium, Brazil, China, Colombia,
Dominican Republic , France, Guatemala, Italy, Kenya, Lesotho, Liechtenstein,
Malawi, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, South Africa,Spain, Tanzania, UK, USA and
soon in many other countries!
Prominent people with Plant-for-the-Planet
Peter Peter Maffay Maffay
16 To make sure that our Plant-for-the-Planet movement spreads
around the world as quickly as possible, it needs
17
Don’t talk.
Plant!
many Climate Justice Ambassadors. Therefore, from the very beginning we gave
it a lot of thought who would be most-suited for this job - aside from us children
of course. Who would be better than the people who are really well known?! In
a short amount of time we 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 high-profile people in society.
They are, for example: Harrison Ford (international actor), Gisele Bündchen
(supermodel), HRH Haya Bint Al Hussein (Princess of Jordan), Michael Stich
(Professional Tennis Player), Seung Soo Han (Prime Minister of South Korea),
Masenate Mohato Seeiso (Queen of Lesotho), Wei Wei (Chinese Popstar) and
many more.
We aren’t saying that to brag. We’re saying it because we are excited so many
well known 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.
Rajendra Pachauri
David Suzuki
Albert II of 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 also want to
put your hand in front
of the mouth of an
important or famous
person?
Stop talking.
Start planting.
was awarded with the
Golden Social Effie
for the best international
campaign 2010
– the “Oscar” for
advertisment.
Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai (1940 - 2011):
Mama Miti – the
Mother of the Trees
The most common reason why people plant trees is
because they want to use them later on, as fuel for a fire
or as building material. Sometimes, people might want
fruit from the tree, for example apples, plums, pears, or
cherries. Trees are often planted for aesthetic reasons.
Indeed, the special charm of most parks and gardens can
be attributed to an abundance of lush and beautiful trees.
In earlier times, trees were planted along the roadside, in order to provide
shade for travellers and horse-drawn carriages. There have always been people
who planted trees with the aim of improving their environment. For example,
designers of ancient cities knew that forests or green-belts can improve the
quality of the air if the wind blows through them before it reaches the city. With
this knowledge they began the tradition of planting forests on the side of the
city from which the wind typically came.
Felix first came up with the idea of Plant-for-the-Planet when he read about
Wangari Maathai, an African woman who planted trees in order to save her
country. For her, it wasn’t necessarily a question of obtaining wood or fruit, it
wasn’t even about the beauty of the trees themselves; what she wanted was to
make something that was about more than personal use. She wanted to create
something that could be used and enjoyed by everyone.
Wangari Maathai was born in Kenya on April 1st *
1940
1940. When she
was young her mother often sent her out to gather wood, telling her many
interesting stories about the trees and shrubs of her African homeland. “Do
not take dry wood out from under a fig tree. It is a tree god! We do not use
him and we do not cut him down,”* was something she used to say. Many of
the children in Africa may have also heard such advice … eventually forgotten,
but not Wangari. She soaked up all information to do with the living world, like
a tree root soaking up water. Another thing that Wangari’s mother often told
her, hoping that she would someday make it her life motto, was “Do not just sit
around idly, go plant something!” Later, Wangari would become world-famous
for doing exactly that.
This is a quote
from the book,
“Trees Save the
World!” in which
Wangari Maathai’s
life and story is
reported about in
great detail.
18 We from Plantfor-the-Planet
give this book
to all of our
Climate Justice
19
Ambassadors as a
gift. Through it
you learn how Wangari
Maathai became
the “Mother of the
Trees,” as well as
bright role-model
for the world and
especially for us
from Plant-for-the-
Planet.

Kenyan
Fig Tree
1971
First things first. Wangari was lucky that her intelligence and ability was noticed
by some of the local missionary sisters. Together the sisters decided to make
sure that this young Kenyan girl from the countryside could attend a well-known
convent school and be given a good education. Wangari’s performance in school
was so good that she went on to receive a scholarship to study abroad. First she
travelled to the United States and then afterwards to Germany to study biology.
In 1971 she was the first Kenyan woman at the University of Nairobi to receive
her PhD. That same year she became the first Professor of Anatomy in veterinary
medicine.
Why Wangari became active
Wangari had already been a member of the National Council of Women of Kenya
(NCWK) for some years. At the next meeting she told the other women about her
idea of “planting” to protect against soil erosion and drought. Wangari was sure
that her colleagues also knew how trees could help to keep the ground firm. Even
in torrential rain, which is normal during the rainy season in Africa, the roots of
tree can stop precious soil from being washed away.
On the other hand, Wangari knew how difficult life could be for the people in
the small villages and she knew that they could not afford to fight against the
depletion of their forests at the expense of the use of firewood for cooking and
staying warm. Simply put, they would cut off the branch on which they sat.
Does anybody really have the right to tell the poor, who often have far too few
resources already, “Keep your hands off the trees”? That would be like denying
food to a starving person.
Wangari Maathai took a big step forward with her idea when she participated
in the first UN Women’s Conference in Mexico City in 1975. Attendees from 133
countries around the world were in agreement that the three areas, women,
development and environment should be considered as a single unit.
In 1977 the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK), commissioned Wangari
(who was already at that time a well-known scientist both nationally and internationally)
to put her tree-planting idea into action.
That was the beginning of the “Green Belt Movement“.
Entire forests
were destroyed!
Trees hold the
ground firm!
1975
Wangari Maathai
distributing seeds
to the villagers
and convincing
politicians.
It was a specific experience that led Wangari to devote herself to protecting
the environment. Petra Schäfer-Timpner writes* : “When she was searching the
surrounding environment in Nairobi for ticks to study in her laboratory she saw
with horror that the rivers were full of mud, pouring out onto the streets, and
* that the cows were emaciated because they could not find enough grass to eat.
Suddenly everything became clear to Wangari. She realized that the ticks weren’t
the worst thing for the cattle farming, the worst thing was the destruction of
the environment … Then afterward she discovered that her beloved fig tree had
been chopped down to make room for a tea plantation … And that a nearby
brook, which she used to play in as a child, had been purposely dried up.”
Wangari Maathai could see that the defiling and devastation of the land clearly
had a lot to do with the fact that the trees had disappeared. For many years the
Kenyan government had been clearing forests so that coffee and tea could be
planted in their place.
Petra Schäfer-
20 21
Timpner is the
author of the
book, “Trees
Save the World!”

* Daniel arap
Moi was President
of Kenya
from 1978 to
2002. Although
he was elected,
his rule was
really a dictatorship.
Green Belt Movement
The beginning was not easy. Police forces of the corrupt Moi* government
destroyed the shoots that the women had hand planted. From the first day, the
movement had to fight to survive.
But the pioneers of the Green Belt Movement were not discouraged. Eventually
Wangari received a commitment from the Kenyan Forest Service that they would
provide one million free seedlings. Unfortunately when the women began to
engage in planting parties throughout the country, the Forest Service broke its
promise. “Only against payment,” one told Wangari and her helpers, implying that
they were also against the women.
Unfortunately there was no money available to purchase a hundred thousand
seedlings, let alone a million! The people from the Forest Service knew this and
hoped that by breaking their promise they could get rid of the “troublesome”
women. The idea that finally saved the movement, was actually quite simple:
“We’ll grow our own seedlings!” How it worked was that women from the countryside
received 4 US-cents for every seedling they grew at home from the Green
Belt Movement. This may not sound like a lot, but for many of these women it
was the first money that they had earned in their entire lives. For the first time
the women could purchase basic essentials for themselves and their families,
essentials which up to that point had been out of reach.
the prize from Princess Diana.
This event spread knowledge
and awareness about the
Green Belt Movement around
the world. However, what
Wangari was most happy about
was that the world was finally
seeing great things happening
in Africa, great things that were
led by the initiative of African
women.”
In 2004 Wangari Maathai was the first African woman ever to receive the Nobel
Peace Prize. This was the first time that Wangari’s protection of the environment
– along with her resistance against the Moi-Dictatorship – had been recognized
as a peace-keeping action. But as the leader of the Nobel Prize committee Ole
Danbold Mjøs wisely stated: “Peace on the Earth depends upon our ability to
maintain a living environment.” This prize honored both her efforts to protect the
environment and her courage for attempting to change the government of
Kenya. Earlier, when Daniel arap Moi was just running for office, Wangari Maathai
had risked her own safety by standing up as a presidential candidate against him
– a bold action which resulted in her being sent to prison where she was sadly
Wangari Maathai
receiving the Nobel
Peace Prize in 2004
In 1981 Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi, hosted a UN Conference on the theme of
mistreated.
1981
“Renewable Energy”. For Wangari this presented a great opportunity to meet
many other like-minded people from around the world. Colleagues from the
At Amnesty International she thanked all the people from many countries around
the world who had given her their support while she was in detention:
Norwegian Forestry Board offered her a small salary so she would have the time
“I cannot count the number of times that they saved my life and have made our
and opportunity to grow and strengthen the Green Belt Movement even further.
work possible.”
22 Money also came from the United Nations (UN) so that her organization could
23
start to pay full-time employees. The Green Belt Movement developed slowly
The Green Belt Movement is active in 13 countries, and has established over 600
and tentatively in the beginning, but now it has become strong and hardy, like a
tree nurseries. So far, over 30 million trees have been planted by members of the
young tree in good soil.
Nothing is stronger than an idea whose time has come. Wangari achieved further
movement. It is these members who gave Wangari her nickname, “Mama Miti,”
which means “Mother of the Trees” in Swahili, Kenya’s native language.
success by bringing many high school graduates from Nairobi into the organization
to work as inspectors. Delegations from all over Africa continued to open
their doors to the women of the Green Belt Movement – hoping that they too
Billion Tree Campaign
2006
could learn how to protect their own country’s environment like these inspiratio-
When a corporate group in the United States told Wangari Maathai it was
nal women. The idea blossomed and continued to bear fruit.
planning to plant a million trees, her spontaneous response was: “That’s great,
but what we really need is to plant a billion trees.” The idea of a Billion Tree
Petra Schäfer Timpner writes: “In 1989 together with Mother Theresa, Wangari
Campaign was born and it was launched during the UN climate summit COP12
Maathai was awarded the Woman of the World prize. She personally received
in November 2006 in Nairobi, Kenya, under the patronage of Wangari Maathai

and HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco and the support of the UNEP. At the same
time, ten thousand kilometres away in Europe Germany, Christmas time, Felix
was reading in Al Gore’s book “An Inconvenient Truth”. In the internet he learned
about Wangari Maathai, that inspiring women in Africa.
Plant-for-the-Planet Children´s Initiative
2007 On January 15
2009
Handover of The Billion
Tree Campaign by
Achim Steiner, UNEP
and Prince Albert II
to the children in
December 2011 in
Durban, South Africa
th 2007 Felix gave his first grade 4 presentation about the climate
crisis in his class. His logic: if women in Africa are able to plant a million trees
each year, we children worldwide should be able to plant a million trees in each
country of the world. This was the launch of the Plant-for-the-Planet Children
Initiative.
The adults in the Billion Tree Campaign succeeded to bring the billionth tree in
the ground in November 2007. Felix and his friends in the Plant-for-the-Planet
Children Initiative reached the first millionth tree in May 2010.
Plant-for-the-Planet Billion Tree Campaign
On September 21th on February 2
2009 Wangari and Felix met for the first time in New York.
Both attended a press conference of the UNEP during the UN General Assembly.
Wangari Maathai underlined the need for the campaign by saying: “People talk
too much. We are no longer talking, we are working. The challenge now is to tell
the world to go dig holes and plant seedlings. I‘ve
no doubt we will achieve our goal.“
Felix presented in New York at the same time the
campaign „Stop talking. Start planting.“ Wangari
and Felix decided to cooperate closely together in
future in the Plant-for-the-Planet Billion Tree Campaign.
Felix made the pictures for the campaign
„Stop talking. Start planting.“ with Wangari, Gisele
Buendchen, Jia Zhibang, the Chinese Minister of
Forestry and many others.
Two years later, it was in New York again, both Felix
and Wangari were invited by the United Nations to
address the UN General Assembly on the occasion
of the opening of the International Year of Forests
nd 2011. In his UN-speech Felix proposed to Wangari Maathai to
set a 1.000 billion trees as a new official goal. Wangari was excited by that
proposal.
When Felix travelled to Africa in July 2011, he also visited Nyeri in Kenya,
Wangari’s home town, but Wangari was already very sick. In Nairobi, the capital
of Kenya at the headquarters of the UNEP, Felix had a meeting with its Executive
Director Achim Steiner and agreed on the handover of the Billion Tree Campaign
to the children of Plan-for-the-Planet. Wangari and Felix were therefore supposed
to meet at the UN Climate Summit COP17 in Durban in December 2011. On September
25th 2011, this inspiring and wonderful woman passed away. Felix wrote
in his diary: “Wangari, you were such an inspiring personality. You will continue to
live in thousands of children. We children will fulfil your vision! You will be proud of
us while looking down to earth!”
When Mama Miti, the mother of trees died the children took over the responsibility
for the Billion Tree Campaign. 14 billion trees were pledged and 12.5 billion
trees planted at that time. Felix and friends were calling in Durban, South Africa
all world citizens for action: “Two trees for each citizen in five years is a good
start. But now we have to speed up: Every world citizen should plant 150 trees
to reach 1,000 billion trees until 2020. We will continue planting trees until we
will have reached 1,000 billion trees. Wangari Maathai has demonstrated that by
planting trees she was successfully empowering the women in Africa. By planting
trees together worldwide we will learn to understand that we are world citizens
and we will empower ourselves in a global movement for sustainability.”
The handover of the official tree counter from the UNEP to the children of Plant-
24 for-the-Planet was a
25
historical event and
a real empowerment
for all the children
of the world.
Every government,
company and citizen
now reports to the
children how many
trees they pledge
to plant or already
have planted.
Felix and Wangari Maathai meeting in
September 2009 in New York for the
first time
2011

Raphael
I am with Plant-forthe-Planet
because I
Carolina
I really care about the global warming consequences and the
impact to our future and the future generations. Nowadays, we are
a lot of humans on this planet, we weren‘t born with the propose to destroy
Why did I join?
We have to do something! Doing nothing and just waiting for the dire predictions
Jule and Merle
We have to take
care of the future,
because otherwise
we won’t be able
to survive. With
the Plant-for-the-
Planet campaign we are
think it is really important our planet, even though we always wanted to dominate, control, manipulate
about climate change to become reality, is not an option. Of course, sometimes taking action and having
that we take care of the every living thing on this planet. While we find more ways to manipulate
we ask ourselves if we’re making a difference.
fun at the same time.
environment together. If the earth, the impact becomes bigger every year, because of the new
“Isn’t it already too late …?”
Through the largeness
we finally begin to start
planting trees, then maybe
we can have an influence
industries and technologies. Now that we are
beginning to realize the problems, we want
to make a change. But changes aren´t easy,
Josia
I am interested in
A wise man once said: “The question of whether help has come too late or just in
time can’t always be answered with a clear yes or a no. But one thing is certain:
of the initiative we receive
a lot of attention and
we keep hearing that
this is why it is such a
on the climate crisis. it is a slow process. If we work all together
everything about
those who give up have already lost!”
success.
worldwide, we can make a change.
climate. I think it is very
important to know how
We won’t give up!
Rufat
Lea and Mira
We joined because we think it is really important that people
and why the environmental
catastrophe is getting
worse. We have already
In fact, quite the opposite
- we are just starting
to make things right!
Leon
I joined because I
want to help save
Plant-for-the-
Planet is a
huge network
and connects children
are educated about the important topic of climate change. It is about our talked about this a little
our Earth – and that can only from many different
future!! We believe that even though we are children we can still influence during some of our school
happen if people understand countries. Together we
world events. We don’t have to listen to those who say, “You have to be presentations. That was
Clara
our environment better. I are powerful and adults
an adult before you can do that.” We think Felix’s idea is super and we
want as many people as possible to take part, so that his idea can be like
a snowball rolling down a hill, always growing.
really interesting and
I was really glad that I
could do it all with my
friend Jona. We have both
There are many reasons: for one,
I would still like to see snow when
I’m older. It’s mostly about my future,
though, and about the lousy situation of
want to help enlighten our
fellow humans, to explain to
them, for example, that a
person doesn’t need to eat
have to pay attention to
us. Through Plant-forthe-Planet
I can invite
even more children to
join our campaigns.
Jona
I joined because I want
to do something for
our future. Most adults talk
26 a lot, but they never really
do anything about what they
say. They refuse to act because
they think only about the present
been a big help to each
Alina and
other.
Moritz
We are engaged
because we have to take our future into our own hands. The
politicians just talk. We immediately start to do something!
Every small contribution is better than big promises. We also
have a lot of fun.
people in the third world. To me, climate pro- meat every day, because an
tection is a big part of social responsibility. unimaginable amount of the
CO2 in the air is caused by
Julian
meat production.
In Indonesia I saw and experienced
pollution of the environment more
than here in Germany. I have seen the clearing of forests first
hand and the consequences it can lead to - many landslides
causing the death of countless animals. The pollution of air
Franziska
I think it’s great
that we can
make new friends
all over the world
27
and save our
planet, all while having
fun at the same time.
and their own comfort. They
Max, Szesima
Anting
by the exhaust from cars and mopeds that has had a big
Maiken
don’t have to worry about this
and Karoline
I have been
effect and in Jakarta there are regular smog alarms.
I talk to my friends and
catastrophe because when we
We joined
active since
everyone else about
are older they’ll already be gone because we don’t want to go into the September 2010
how important it is to save trees
and they won’t feel its effects. So history books as the generation that and my goal is to
Lexam
as we prepare for global warming.
if comfort and money are more allowed all of the coastal countries to make sure that
I joined because Plant-for-the-Planet is a real demo- The future belongs to us!
important to many adults than
be flooded by rising sea levels. No, China also becomes
cratic organised children´s initiative. We children can
we children, then we will have to we want to be known as the generation a climate-oriented
only save our future by building up a worldwide network to
Melik-Sina
do something about it ourselves, that were successful in conquering the country.
show the adults that we are the majority on this planet.
Why did I join? Because with
because they won’t do it on their most difficult crisis humankind has had
Plant-for-the-Planet we can do
own.
to face.
something for our environment!

Climate in crisis 30
What is climate justice? 42
How trees help to counteract
the climate crisis 46
“Treat the earth well: it was not given to you
by your parents, it was loaned to you by your
children. We do not inherit the Earth from our
Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.“
Native American Quote
What does climate change mean?
2.

Climate in crisis
“Well, I am officially a Diplom-Meteolo- net. Volleyball and football are similar
When there is a heavy snowstorm in the middle of May,
gist: the ‘Diplom’ is added because I in that they are both played with a ball,
many people say: “Oh, that’s just climate change.” Or if it
have studied meteorology. However, but nevertheless they are played with
rains all day in the height of summer and the rivers flow
because I also announce the weather, completely different rules. This is the
over their banks, people hear – sometimes even on TV:
I’m called a ‘weatherman.”
same with the relationship between
“This is global warming – global warming caused this.”
“How long have you worked weather and climate.”
However, crazy weather doesn’t necessarily have to be
as a Weatherman?”
“Have you identified any similarities
related to climate change, because the climate and the
“I believe it’s been around 14 years between climate change and the
weather are actually two completely different things.
now.”
weather in Germany over time?”
“In my presentations as a Climate “From day to day, not really. In the last
Clara conducted an interview with Sven Ploeger, the “Weatherman” from ARD (a
Justice Ambassador, I always 100 years, the average temperature
German TV channel). Through this interview we learnt much more than just the
explain the climate as the ave- in Germany has risen about 1.1 °C
difference between the weather and the climate, as you will see:
rage temperature, but that is a (1.98 degrees Fahrenheit), and around
little bit simplified. Can you explain the world about 0.7 °C (1.26 degrees
Clara interview with the
“weatherman” from a German TV
channel.
From the very begining of my inter-
more specifically what it is?
“Climate is not only the average
temperature in any given place, it is
also average rainfall, along with other
weather conditions. It is a measure-
Fahrenheit) – the result of many years
of measurements.
This may seem small, but the
Earth’s average temperature has
only risen about 4°C (7.2 degrees
view with Sven Ploeger everything
ment determined over a span of about Fahrenheit) since the last ice age,
Is it ok if I use your first name?” was relaxed. Almost all of the
30 years. Therefore, it always takes which was about 11,000 years ago.
“Yes, absolutely! Mr Ploeger sounds answers he gave to me were highly
the average (weather), along with both If we continue to act as we have, the
much too old-fashioned for my taste.” detailed and comprehensive.
time and space, into consideration. temperature in the next 100 years
“The same goes for me. Feel
“Sven, what exactly is the
Our global climate is thus the result of will rise between 2 -4 °C (3.6 – 7.2
free to use my first name.”
name of the job you do?”
30-years (weather) averages across degrees Fahrenheit). So far, fluctua-
the entire Earth. One very important tions of storm patterns in Germany
difference between the two though is have remained mostly normal.
30 that we can feel the weather, but not Although when the atmosphere is
31
the climate.”
warmer it can absorb more water, so
“But there are also similarities the maximum number of storms is
between the two, aren’t there?” expected to rise in the future because
“Similarities in so far as both – the of the warmer climate.”
weather and the climate – have to do “What kind of tips would you recom-
with the physical operations of the mend to those who want to do
atmosphere. Nevertheless, they are something against climate change?”
actually quite different.
“I think it is really important to explain
I have an example from sports, to people that we can do a lot against
specifically volleyball and soccer. climate change. Don’t despair!
Both are played with a ball. But in one At this moment in time there are two
game the players attempt to get the factors changing the climate: nature
ball over the net, and in the other the and humankind. What nature does is
players attempt to get the ball into the something we can’t change, but we do

* What Sven
The weather is what we experience,
– for example, if the summers are
continually becoming hotter and drier,
means exactly
is further explained
with the
theme “climate
justice,” on
page 42
have control over what we are doing.
For example, around the entire world,
13.8 billion litres of oil are consumed
daily. So we have to ask ourselves:
how do I use energy in my life? On the
lished price for the cost of emissions
– worldwide!* A common argument
against this is: “Clean energy is too
expensive!” But in reality, conventional
energy isn’t any cheaper because the
today or in a month from now. Climate,
conversely, is the average of the
weather-data from at least 30 years.
Only when the weather moves in one
direction over the course of decades
when they used to be cooler and
wetter – this is a clear sign that the
climate is changing.
one hand, I can save energy but I can
also start using alternative forms of
environmental costs of conventional
methods are eventually going to have Climate change before our time
energy, too.
to be paid. Nature isn’t being compen-
In order for this to happen, existing sated for what we do to it. We have
When people mention climate change, many others
technologies for alternative energy been misunderstanding the true price
respond with, “So what?” and a shrug. “The cli-
must be developed and put to better of energy!”
mate is always changing. It’s normal!”
use.
“You have mentioned both moral
Moreover, every individual should
and political reasons. Are there
realize that they can make an impor- any others that you can think of?”
Yes, this is true. The Earth’s climate is how the Earth’s climate was thousands
tant contribution to climate protection, “Yes, definitely. Take the economy for
always undergoing changes – but nor- of years ago. Glaciers are especially
too. They just have to start getting example. If the government of country
mally at a snail’s pace. It has constantly helpful to scientists, answering the
active. Waiting for somebody else to ‘A’ says: ‘We are raising our environ-
alternated between warm and cold peri- questions: when, where, how long and
do it doesn’t get us anywhere. Envy mental standards,’ then businesses
ods and in the 11,000 years since the how warm or how cold things were at
won’t help: just because my neighbour respond and say: ‘That is going to
last ice age the average temperature of any particular time. A glacier is a mas-
has a huge car does not mean that I raise our costs - we don’t want to do
the earth has risen by only 4 °C (7.2 sive ice sheets that grows thicker every
automatically need one, too. A much that.’ So, they simply move their ope-
degrees Fahrenheit). Since the change year. Experts can calculate from their
better idea is to enjoy a simple, rations to another country, country ‘B.’
has occurred over such a long time, glaciers “year rings” that the deeper
environmentally-friendly life.”
For A, this would mean an economic
many animals and plants were able to layers of the Greenland-Glacier must be
“What kind of things do
loss. So they ultimately decide not to
adapt to it or to avoid any unpleasant over 200,000 years old, and that the
you do yourself?”
do anything”
changes.
icy hills of the glacier on Antarctica are
“The electricity I use at home comes “Sven, would you like to say
probably over 900,000 years old.
32 from green, renewable resources. I anything in conclusion?”
What we now know with some precision,
33
also try to save as much paper as “Yes. I want to thank all of you: your
is that glaciers can help us to determine
possible while I’m at work.”
future looks positive. Continue doing
“The argument that alternative what you are doing, you’re on the right
energy sources aren’t yet
path!”
developed enough is definitely “Thank you so much for this
not true. So, why haven’t we
very insightful interview!”
already made the massive
The interview was
switch over to green-energy?”
conducted by
Clara, a Climate
“Firstly, not everybody understands
Justice Ambassa-
that we need to make this change.
Secondly, quite a few people earn a lot
of money by polluting the environment.
Honestly, what we need is an estabdor
from Augsburg,
Germany.
800,000 year-old
ice core, drilled
from a depth
of 3,200 meters
(nearly 2
miles)!

Wärmeabstrahlung
Heat radiation
Soil surface
Erdoberfläche
This is the
problem!
Hier liegt
das Problem.
The CO2 cycle
Der CO2-Kreislauf
Scientists take long cylindrical samples,
called ice cores, from this old ice. These
ice cores – or more precisely, the tiny
This is because when the sunrays
reach the earth’s surface, a certain
amount of them are reflected
Burning of fossil fuels
Agriculture fossile Brennstoffe
Deforestation Landwirtschaft !!! Abholzung !!! Vegetation
Landpflanzen
Atmosphere
Atmosphäre
air bubbles found in them – are very
interesting to the scientists. Scientists
back as if by a mirror, and the rest
are converted directly into heat.
Ocean
Ozean
learn from these bubbles by examining,
for example, how much methane (CH4)
is in them at a depth of 150, 170, or
200 meters? They can also examine how
Essentially this heat should be radiated
back and allowed to escape into
space, but there is something which
prevents this heat from dissipating: the
Top-soil
Humus
Releases CO2
Ocean plants
Meerespflanzen
much carbon dioxide (CO2) they contain. earth’s protective layer of gases, the
Absorbs gibt CO2
ab
If the proportion of carbon dioxide or atmosphere – its “pullover”. Some of
nimmt CO2 auf
methane in these bubbles is unusually the gases in the atmosphere allow the
high, then it is a sign that the climate
would have been quite warm when the
sun’s rays to easily pass through them,
while these rays are travelling towards The cycle of Where coal and
ice bubbles formed.
the earth. These same gases then stop
the heat from radiating back out – just carbon dioxide oil come from
The climate
like the glass covering of a greenhouse.
Accordingly, these gases are called
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is constantly in In the history of the Earth there was a
makers
greenhouse gases.
The most important greenhouse gases
motion through the atmosphere. Plants
absorb it through countless tiny pores
time when the climate was far warmer
and wetter than it is today. For plants,
are carbon dioxide (CO2) methane (CH4),
on their leaves and they process it in a this was paradise. Since this time plants
But what do carbon dioxide (CO2) and and steam. We can primarily thank the-
very refined way to make food and plant have never been able to grow so fast
methane (CH4) have to do with the se gases for the fact that the earth has
tissue. In this complicated process, and lush.
climate?
a comfortable average temperature of
oxygen is treated as the leftover waste
15 °C (59 degrees Fahrenheit). If there
and will eventually be released back out However, in swamps and marshland
In fact, quite a lot. Both of these gases were no greenhouse gases at all, the
into the air by the green plant. But this forests, when giant trees and other
– and a few others too – make up the cli- average temperature on earth would be
gaseous waste from plants is exactly plants died and collapsed, they were
mate. They function in a way like a warm -18 °C (-0.4 degrees Fahrenheit)! Defini-
what we humans and other animals immediately covered by water and mud.
34 pullover preventing body heat from tely not as comfortable!
need to live, because we breathe in Plants need air in order to decompo-
35
escaping.
Sonneneinstrahlung
Sunlight
Heat reflection
Wärmerückstrahlung
back into space
in den Weltraum
Treibhausgase Greenhouse gases
oxygen (O2) and exhale carbon dioxide
(CO2). So what comes from the leaves
of the plants, bushes, and trees, is then
re-used – a perfect circle.
se and they did not have this in these
swamps As a result, the trunks, stems,
and leaves of the dead plants stayed
as they were in the water, where they
began to accumulate over time into
However, carbon dioxide (CO2) doesn’t thick layers of dead plant material.
The greenhouse Der Treibhauseffekt gas effect
just enter the atmosphere when animals
and humans exhale. In fact, more CO2
Initially the dead plants were pressed
into a substance called peat, but after
is added to the atmosphere every time even thicker layers of sand and gravel
an animal dies and its body decays, or were deposited onto them, the pressure
a branch of a tree rots, or when a piece of the added weight compressed the
of wood is burned. The death of both peat into a different substance called
plants and animals is like a large final charcoal. It is still the same carbon
exhalation of CO2 back into the air. dioxide from the leaves, branches, and

Wie Kohle/Erdöl entsteht
How Coal and Oil are formed
Pflanzen Plants und and
Tiere sterben. animals die
Es entsteht The result Torf is peat
bzw. Schlamm. or mud
trunks of these ancient jungles, but
rather than escaping into the atmosphere
it was deposited underground,
remaining as peat or coal. It was as if
someone had put away the CO2 into
a huge underground savings account.
Oil is actually formed in quite a similar
way. Over a period of hundreds of
thousands of years, plants and animals
in the ocean died and collected
on the seafloor. In the places where
there was too little oxygen for their
bodies to break down they began to
turn into putrid mud. So, over the
course of millions of years, these
“graveyards” grew in thickness, with
sand and other materials constantly
being deposited on top. The weight
created higher pressures and higher
temperatures (pressure generates
heat), until at a certain point it eventually
all became oil. This oil is also
just like a giant underground savings
Smoking
chimneys
For thousands of years we humans
burned only what was above the
ground – primarily wood, peat, and
animal manure – and during this time
everything was in balance. The (little)
carbon dioxide that we released into
the air could be recaptured by new
plants and quickly “withdrawn from
circulation.” Our dilemma began when
humans discovered that coal and oil
made excellent burning material. First
they dug up the coal which had been
lying just beneath the Earth’s surface.
Then later they developed more refined
methods in order to reach deeper coal
and oil deposits. Today, the old forests
which had been pressed into coal, and
the ocean life which was pressed into
oil, are called “fossil fuels.” The word
“fossil” comes from Latin and primarily
Weitere Other Schichten layers
erzeugen generate Druck. pressure
account for CO2.
Large oil deposits, regardless of
means, “dug up.”
We humans also do many other things
realize. For example, everyone’s mental
image of the countryside is likely to
include the spring plowing of the fields
undergone change. However, the current
trend of climate change is occurring
at a tempo or speed unlike any that
600
600
36 whether they are on the Arabian Pen- that produce vast amounts of CO2. A
with great big strong tractors pulling the earth has ever experi-
37
Es entsteht The result is
Kohle bzw. coal or Öl. oil
insula, in Venezuela, or in the Caspian
Sea, are always a sign that the area
above them used to be the floor of
giant oceans millions of years ago.
giant cloud of CO2 is expelled by many
of our forms of transportation, especially
airplanes, cars, and ships. The
production of energy and heat (through
which we have things like electricity!)
creates even greater amounts of gas. A
lot of CO2 is also released when we cut
the earth up in large, deep ruts. If CO2
had a color – for example yellow –
Gemessene CO2-Konzentration
Measured CO2 Concentration
enced before.*
CO2-Niveau
CO2 Level in
in
45
45
Years
Jahren
(wenn (if we wir don’t nichts do anything ändern)
about it)
CO2-Niveau heute
CO2 Level Today
400
300
260
240
400
300
260
240
down or burn forests.
200 200
Would it have been better for humans
not to go digging? Would it have been
better for us to leave the coal and the
oil deep under the earth? Without the
Abweichung vom Durchschnitt
Deviation from the Average
“quick energy” from coal and petroleum,
the industrial age with all of its
progress (but also with all of its downsides
and problems) would never have
begun. When oil and coal are burned,
the CO2 they contain is re-released into
the atmosphere instead of being saved
underground forever.
In only a few short decades we have
been consuming the life savings of the
entire Earth. In a single year we put as
much CO2 into the air as the plants had
absorbed and saved up over a million
years! And the more carbon dioxide that
is put into the air, the more greenhouse
gases accumulate in the atmosphere,
and the more greenhouse gases there
are, the warmer the entire planet becomes.
No wonder the climate is going
crazy.
But there are also other sources of CO2
that people don’t usually think about or
then this image would include gigantic
sulphur-yellow clouds wafting over the
freshly plowed fields; and where the soil
had just been dug up, it would look like
yellow smoke coming from chimneys.
There are unimaginably large amounts
of CO2 stored in the upper layers of
the soil, which are dug up and released
through plowing. This is a big reason
(although not the only one) why organic
farming has largely abandoned the
practice. Organic farmers “dig” more
carefully, that is, they loosen the soil
without kicking up huge clouds of CO2.
Concern for the climate it is therefore a
very good reason to buy organic foods.
Human as the
climate “engine”
It’s true that the climate has always
* More information on:
www.350.org
Temperature in degree Celsius
Temperatur in °C
Current Earth Temperature
600.000 500.000 300.000 200.000 100.000 derzeitige Erdtemperatur
0
600.000 500.000 Time 300.000 (Years before the Present) 200.000 100.000 0
Zeit ( Jahre vor der Gegenwart)
CO2 ppm
CO2 ppm

Methane and the cow
as the scapegoat
The bad news first: methane
is a greenhouse gas 25
times more powerful than
carbon dioxide. The good
news: methane is very
uncommon. The proportion
of carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere is almost
400 times larger than the
proportion of methane.
Therefore, despite its
strength, it ultimately
contributes less to global
warming than CO2.
Methane is released from
landfills, rice paddies,
swamps and from thawing
permafrost. Methane also
comes out of both the
front and rear ends of
animals – no joke! Every
time a cow belches
or farts, both of which
cows do very often, they
release methane into the
air. And because we people
(more specifically:
because more affluent
people) eat enormous
quantities of beef, there
are vast herds of cows,
belching and farting and
putting an even greater
strain on our atmosphere.
But actually the cows can
be forgiven, because it’s
really we who are to blame.
If cattle lived only
in Greenland as nature had
intended them to, rather
than being kept in stalls
and fattened up with soy
The concentration of CO2 and methane
and corn feed, then things
would look quite different
than they do today.
In fact, in order to make
room for their soybean
feed, much of the Earth’s
rainforests have been
cleared away. Because of
this our world’s green
‘lungs’ are disappearing
and thus are not able to
save as much CO2 as before.
These methods of slash and
burn have ultimately led
to a huge increase of CO2
emissions.
We end up feeding soybeans
to the cows, which belch
and fart methane all day
long so that we can eat
meat every day.
Do we really need to eat
that much meat?
has risen over 3 °C since the 1960s.
Antarctica are beginning to melt away
far too quickly.
Enormous amounts of the Earth’s water
is stacked and “stored away” in glaciers
and ice sheets in Antarctica and
Greenland and this water is melting and
quickly filling up the oceans.
With the melting, experts say that the
state of the world’s oceans will become
increasingly more hazardous during this
century. Islands in the Indian Ocean, like
the Maldives, will be almost completely
flooded; coastlines will be forever changed,
and nearby cities will be swallowed
up by rising water levels. As 40 percent
of all people live near the world’s coastal
areas, around 100 million people
are expected to lose their homes and
spread. Land where people
previously grew food will no
longer be fertile. Rainforests
with their unbelievable diversity
of plants and animals will dry
out and erode. Experts are debating
with each other about when
it will become too hot for even the
rainforests to survive – but they agree
that less rainfall will limit the rainforests’
ability to be the safe home of countless
plants and animals.
Many rivers and streams are facing a
similar threat. When rivers that depend
on water from glaciers to keep flowing
aren’t “fed” by melted snow and ice (i.e.
when the glaciers are gone), there won’t
be any giant rivers or even tiny streams
– because they will be “fed” only every
Felix and the other
Climate Justice
Ambassadors have
learned over the years
that it is not just
about saving the polar
bears, it is about the
future of humankind.
During a presentation
in Geneva, Felix had
the idea for a “cheeky”
sticker which his
friend Johann helped
to create. The idea
eventually found
its way to the World
Climate Summit in
Copenhagen. Adults
stood in front the
meeting-place between
“Climate Politicians,”
waving banners and
posters of these polar
bears saying “Save
in the air is higher than at any point The permafrost in Alaska and in Sibe-
become climate refugees.
now and then by rain. We can’t begin to
in the last 600,000 years. In the last ria is already beginning to thaw and
imagine, in our worst nightmares, what
1,000 years the world hasn’t been as because of this, the brittle streets and
Because of changing coastlines, lives this would mean. For example, for the
hot as it is today. The average tempe- buildings there are losing stable ground
will be permanently changed. Coral Ganges River in India and the millions
rature of the globe has risen 0.74 °C and starting to collapse.
reefs will not be able to bear the of people who live along its banks,
(1.33 degrees Fahrenheit), in the last
warmer temperatures, and billions of drinking water, which is provided by gla-
100 years alone. Three quarters of a We are alarmed because 0.74 degrees
animals living in reefs will die off, one ciers, would disappear, famines would
38
degree Celsius or more in just a single
century! Earlier that would have taken
is only the beginning. Scientists have
already determined that within the cen-
by one. Also, coral reefs are supposed
to be a form of natural protection; with-
occur and millions of people would have
to flee from drought and hunger, migra-
the Human.”
39
the Earth 2,000 years!
tury, Earth’s average temperature will
out them the forces of nature will have ting just to survive. The areas that will
continue to rise – in the worst case by
easier access to unprotected coasts, be less affected by climate change, rich
“Yeah, and...?” say many people. “That’s 4 °C (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) –if we
meaning that storm surges and Tsu- countries – above all the United States
not even a single degree! What are you don’t start taking counter-measures,
namis* will lead to many more deaths and many European nations – would
all so alarmed about?!”
and fast.
than in the past. Coral reefs function in then quickly become overpopulated. * Tsunamis are
a way like tropical rain forests, as the
gigantic waves
which are triggered
We are alarmed because it’s only the
average temperature that has risen
We are alarmed because even the
small rise in temperature of 0.74 °C
habitat of the majority of the world’s biodiversity.
Therefore, if we lose the reefs
This is something we
really want to stop!
by earthquakes on
the ocean floor.
0.74 degrees. In some areas it’s chan- has already made huge impacts on our
we will also lose much of the diversity of
ged even faster. In Alaska, for example, planet by causing the sea levels to rise
life on Earth.
“And in order to stop all of these threat-
the temperature has risen between 3 over 15 centimeters (almost 6 inches)
ening developments, all you want to
and 4 °C (5.4 – 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in the last 100 years. This is because
While water is rising along the coasts, do is to plant trees?” people ask us.
since the 1950s and in West Siberia it the ice from glaciers on Greenland and
in other places deserts will begin to Yes! Because it’s not just about taking

The Aletsch Glacier
in Switzerland, in
1900 and 2005
CO2 out of the air, it is about working
together for a new future. And by planting
trees around the world, we children
will begin to see ourselves as a world
family, as global-citizens. We aren’t sitting
around asking who is responsible
for the chaos, we are working together
to fix it. It’s about encouraging others to
take action too!
Of course, we know that more of the
world’s forests will be cut down or destroyed
each year than we can replace
with Plant-for-the-Planet. We also know
that the young trees and shrubs that
we do plant cannot absorb as much
Not all of the ice that
melts will make the
sea level rise
We have noticed a common misunderstanding among
many people, particularly in conversations with those
who we have only recently brought to our cause.
This misunderstanding is about ice and the question
of what happens around the world when it thaws.
Many believe that when icebergs melt in the ocean, the
sea level rises immediately. This isn’t exactly how it
works. For example, when a glass is about ¾ full with
CO2 as established rainforests. But we
also know that sitting back and doing
nothing is simply not an alternative.
We already have quite a large group
of Climate Justice Ambassadors. And
undoubtedly our ranks will continue to
expand the people that are in charge
are still not doing enough to save the
future of our planet.
The majority of politicians, industrialists,
business leaders and agriculture representatives
who refuse to take action,
will no longer be around in 2040. But
both water and ice cubes and the ice cubes melt, the
water doesn’t pour over the sides of the glass. And
when the ice in a pond melts at the end of winter,
the pond won’t be fuller than the previous autumn.
However, if we also lay a big block of ice at the edge
of the pond, when it melts it could very well make the
water level in the pond higher than before.
It’s the same situation with the ice that lies “stored
away” in the glaciers on each continent. When the
glaciers melt, as a result of global warming, the
waterflows down into the ocean, raising the sea
level and flooding coasts and the coastal cities.
we children will. It’s about our future, about our
lives!
It is for this reason that we use the term climate crisis.
Global warming sounds a little too comfortable.
“Crisis” shows the seriousness of the situation and
makes it clear that we humans have to do something.
We know that we have a long path ahead of us, but
every journey begins with a single step, and we are
already well on our way.
„If you want to go fast, go alone. If
you want to go far, go together.“
(Old Indian proverb)
We have to go fast and far!
The largest amount of continental ice on earth
(the ice that is “stored away”) is in Antarctica and
Greenland. There are also large quantities in South
America and in glaciers in various mountain ranges
around the world.
Does this mean that the ice already in the sea doesn’t
have an effect on the climate? No! Ice melting in the
oceans actually has a powerful effect on the global
climate. It is particularly noticeable when seas that
are frozen throughout the year or over many
months of the year lose their ice coating. This is
because snow and ice reflect sunlight like a giant
Helpful Hint:
Ice on the North Pole is 2 meters (6.5 feet) thick.
Ice on Greenland is 2 kilometers (almost 1.25 miles)
thick.
With global warming, weather events will become
more extreme. And so-called “ century floods” are
already beginning to happen every few years.
40 41
sheet of aluminum foil: sending up to 90 percent of
the sunrays directly back into space. Without this,
the likelihood that the earths atmosphere will grow
warmer is further increased.
If these giant mirrors (the floating ice sheets around
the poles) melt, then the earth will lose its most
effective “refrigerator.” When the sun shines on
water instead of ice, it absorbs up to 90 percent
of the heat and energy. This continually adds more
heat to the earth’s already warming climate, and
ends up melting the continental ice and raising the
sea level even faster than before.

20t
20t
On average, an US-American produces 20 tons of CO2 every year. A
European, 10 tons, a Chinese, 6 tons, and an African produces barely
10t more than half a ton.
10t 4t o,5t
The USA 6t and Europe o,5t – altogether about 1 billion people – are
1 Amerikaner
1 US-American
responsible for 60 percent of the CO2 emitted into the air. The rest of
1 Europäer 1 Chinese 1 Afrikaner
1 European humanity 1 Chinese – around 1 6 African billion people – share the remaining 40 percent.
60%
60%
CO2-Ausstoß
CO2 emission
ca. 1.000.000.000 Menschen
appx. USA 1.000.000.000 + Europa people
USA + Europe
ca. 6.000.000.000 Menschen
ca. übrige 6.000.000.000 Welt people
rest of the world
40%
Until the 2009 UN Climat Summit
CO2-Ausstoß pro Kopf und Jahr
40%
CO2-Ausstoß CO2-Ausstoß gesamt
Carbon footprint Is this per fair? person per year in Copenhagen one thought 2
Total CO2 CO2 emission
emission
* Rule of thumb:
4 Tons of CO2 =
4 degree temperature
rise
(degree Celsius)
1.5 Tons of CO2 =
1.5 degree
temperature rise
(degree Celsius)
What is climate justice?
Of course not!
Our idea might sound strange at first,
but we believe that everyone should
have the right to emit the same amount
of CO2, no matter where they live or
where they were born. Judging by
today’s level of CO2 in the atmosphere,
this would allow around 5 tons of carbon
dioxide per person each year.
Even if we were to succeed in fairly
distributing CO2 emissions around the
world, there would still be many other
changes needing to be made. An ave-
eventually lead to a chaotic global
climate with horrible consequences.
For example, the sea level will continue
to rise if we refuse to reduce the
total amount of CO2 we produce. And
since almost 40 percent of the human
population lives near the coast, millions
of people would lose their homes and
be forced to relocate. The reality is
that it would be the people who live in
countries that emit the least CO2 who
would be the most effected. Isn’t this
completely unfair?
rage emission of 5 tons of CO2 would
still be much too high, and it would We have to do something
African will likely only use 0.5 of a ton
of his allotted 1.5 tons CO2 limit. There-
an especially high CO2 tax. Maybe more
people would start to travel CO2 CO2-Ausstoß
by train emission
about this. We have to
fore they should have the right to sell again, because the price of air travel,
make CO2 emissions fair for
everybody. And we have to
the unused 1.0 ton to other people who
want to emit more than 1.5 tons of CO2
including its huge CO2 tax, would finally appx. ca. 1.000.000.000 Menschen people
show its true cost.
USA USA + Europe Europa
20t 20t
1 US-American 1 Amerikaner
10t 10t
1 European 1 Europäer
6t 4t
1 1 Chinese o,5t
1 African Afrikaner
reduce the amount we each
produce by half, to 1.5 tons
of CO2 per year, because
with this amount, the Earth’s
atmosphere will finally have
the chance to restore itself.*
per year. The money that African people
then earned could be put towards
modern eco-friendly technologies. They
could build schools and hospitals, train
doctors and teachers, and their children
Since the 2005 Climate Summit,*
ca. ca. 6.000.000.000 Menschen people
rest übrige of the Weltworld
this
approach to implementing climate justi- *
ce has been called “emissions trading.”
Usually the word “emission” means
Incidentally,
42 43
the UN Climate
Summit is held
in a different
would no longer have to go hungry. We everything that is released into the envi-
40%
city of the
We have no other choice!
kids call that real climate justice. ronment, 40% but in this case it mostly just
world every
Carbon CO2-Ausstoß footprint pro per Kopf person und per Jahr year refers CO2-Ausstoß CO2-Ausstoß Total CO2 CO2 emission
to the emission of greenhouse emission
year. gesamt
Even adults have to understand this.
They have to see that these rules must
be followed, just the way we kids must
follow the rules our parents give us.
Every single one of us, whether we are
big or small or whether we come from
Africa, Europe, or America, need a
law that makes sure nobody emits
more than 1.5 tons of CO2 per year.
tons of CO2 and accordingly an
increase of an average temperature
of dditional 2 °C would be enough.
But at the 2010 UN Climate Summit in
Cancun, the representatives of several
islands explained: 2 °C more and our
islands will be under water, 1.5 °C or
1.5 tons of CO2 per person per year is
the limit.
What happens if we go beyond this
limit? Well then we should have to pay
for it! If we produce more CO2 than we
fairly should, we should have to buy extra
“pollution rights” from the countries
that don’t reach their CO2 quota. An
Trading CO2 like this will also force us to
change our habits. If CO2 actually cost
money and we had to pay a CO2 tax
for every product that we bought,
then CO2 intensive products would
quickly become much more expensive
than eco-friendly products. This way we
would begin to pay a bit more attention
to what we are buying and how we are
living. For example, grapes from South
Africa and apples from Chile, both of
which are transported around the world
which result in a lot of CO2 emissions,
would then become very expensive.
The same would apply to cars that
consume a lot of gas and “exhale” giant
clouds of CO2. They would be hit with
gases (above all, CO2).
60%

Emissions
trading works
basically like
musical chairs.
* Adults call
them “emissions
certificates”
Emissions trading:
The simple thing
that is hard to do
“Yes, it can work … so what?
We just trade permission slips
for pollution rights?” This is the
most common response we
receive from sceptics when we
talk about using emissions trading
to save the environment.
We say: yeah, it can work! But of
course, the idea behind it has to be
fairly implemented.
In any case, the plan looks like this:
each member of the European Union
(EU) divides a so-called “allocation plan”
with “pollution permission slips”* to all
of the power plant operators and the
companies that use a lot of electricity
in their country. Whoever holds one of
these notes will be allowed to emit a
certain amount of greenhouse gases
over a certain period of time.
Now comes the most important part:
in order for the plan to work – that is,
ultimately to have fewer greenhouse
gases emitted into the air – people have
to be thrifty with their CO2 allotment.
This means that the people who issue
these certificates have to make sure that
fewer CO2 emissions are allowed than
what was formerly considered “normal.”
This is a little bit like the game musical
chairs. It only works when there are too
few chairs, because the scarcity forces
people to be alert and on their toes.
And if they are in limited supply and
high-demand, then they are going to
be more expensive because people are
willing to pay more for them.
Price increases on the “pollution certificate
market” will have a strong effect:
they will soon make it cheaper in the
long run for energy producers and other
companies to develop new technolo-
Joy [12, Krefeld, Germany]
When I heard about this idea for the first time, that everyone on Earth should
have the same “pollution rights” as everybody else, I honestly thought to myself,
“They’re crazy! We are already polluting the environment way too much – what is going to
happen when we tell everyone that should go ahead and do so, too? Then everyone would
pollute the environment even more – like what’s happening in China right now! And on top of
that, when we are 50 years old there will be 2 billion more people on the planet than today,
and everyone (Chinese, Indians, South American, African, etc...) will want to live as comfortably
as we do here…
But when I got to know more about the idea of climate justice, especially that its overall
purpose is to limit pollution as a whole by fairly distributing it out among everybody, I was
thrilled!
gies or methods that don’t create as
much pollution, rather than constantly
having to buy more emissions certificates.
Those who invest in clean energy
can then sell their remaining pollution
rights to others for a profit, because
they won’t need them anymore.
So far so good … or is it?
This is a great idea but as sometimes
happens when adults try to tackle a
difficult problem, it has not yet been
implemented in its ideal form. When
previous attempts to create a market
for emissions trading were made, there
were simply too many emission certificates
printed and distributed (the people
who bought them didn’t even have to
pay anything!). There was also too little
incentive for the power plant operators
and other massive polluters to change
and start producing cleaner energy and
more eco-friendly products.
So of course, this can’t work!
One thing is clear: we need a real, fair,
and binding global contract that can be
implemented everywhere!
In order to move forward decisively
though, we will have to overcome the
corruption harming our future and preventing
climate justice.
Even when it is hard to do: We absolutely
have to take this chance!
44 45
Franziska [13, Pähl, Germany]
I have to admit that it took a while before I fully understood emission trading,
but it is actually quite simple: scientists can tell us each year exactly how much
CO2 the environment (the ocean, trees, etc…) can safely absorb, for example, 15 billion
tons of CO2. We can then take that amount and divide it by the number of people on the
planet – let’s just say, by 10 billion (it’s easier to calculate that way). This comes out to 1.5
tons of CO2 per person. Whoever wants more can buy it on the market for CO2 rights. If a lot
of people want more CO2, then the price will go so high that it becomes cheaper to invest in
green-technologies. What’s really important for us kids though is that no more than 15 billion
tons of CO2 is allowed to be emitted into the atmosphere.
If every kid on earth receives their birth-right of 1.5 tons of CO2, then we won’t need to worry
about sending any more money for charity or development aid. Climate justice is a breeze!
This is why we want to see this plan finally established during the next Climate Summit.

How trees help to counteract
the climate crisis
How does this happen? Well, every Two examples: a 35 meter (around 115
plant absorbs CO2 molecules from the foot) pine tree with a trunk diameter of
air through its leaves and needles. Fol- 50 centimetres (20 inches), stores 0.7
The vast majority of people know that trees are good
lowing absorption, it splits the oxygen metric tons of carbon. What this means
for the global climate, but they are also good for the so-
and carbon atoms from each other and is that in order to grow to this size the
called microclimate (i.e. the immediate environment).
then chemically converts the carbon tree had to absorb 2.6 metric tons of
The reason behind this, and therefore why we choose to
into wood and creates growth. For this CO2 from the atmosphere.
plant trees, will require a little extra space to explain.
to work a complicated chemical process
(called photosynthesis) has to happen
Beech trees have even firmer wood.
We children from Plant-for-the-Planet It is for this reason that many of of the
in the plant’s leaves and needles. If
Therefore they need more CO2 in order
have learned that you really need a donated trees are planted in southern
someone wanted to fully understand,
to build their firm roots, and in the pro-
clear and thorough understanding of countries – in Africa, South and Central
this process, they would probably have
cess they protect the climate even more.
something if you want to be able to America and in Asia. These trees not
to take an advanced biology course or
A beech tree with the same height and
explain it to others in a simple way, only help the global climate, they also
study botany.
diameter as the pine tree above, stores
as well as to quickly and confidently fight against the spreading of deserts
around 0.95 metric tons of carbon. This
answer any questions they may have.
What’s important for us though is
equals 3.5 metric tons of CO2 absorbed
We have learnt this as a result of giving
the result: plants can convert carbon
from the atmosphere – almost a full
lectures and gathering donations for
dioxide (through photosynthesis) into
metric ton more!
trees.
something solid, something that is the
primary ingredient of wood. As long
About a third of Germany is covered
It is crucial to have background know-
as this wood doesn’t burn or rot, the
with forests and within these forests
ledge so you can always respond to
greenhouse gas will stay bound up in it.
around 4.4 billion tons of CO2 is stored
new questions. Otherwise, any case you
The plant essentially stores the carbon (when one converts from carbon to
try and make will be standing on shaky
in its stem, branches, and roots. carbon dioxide) – an incredibly large
legs. For this reason we are going to
provide an explanation here about the
relationship between trees and different
amount.
46 aspects of the global climate.
47
Background
knowledge is
important!
The tropical
forests are
the lungs of
our Earth.
As we already know, forests can absorb
carbon dioxide. However, one forest is
not exactly the same as the next forest,
just as one tree is not exactly the same
as every other tree. Tropical forests
grow much faster than forests in central
Europe. Therefore more CO2 is absorbed
in forests that are closer to the equator.
This is also why losing the tropical rainforests
is so much worse for the global
climate.
by “reclaiming” land, piece-by-piece,
while simultaneously ensuring that the
groundwater level rises again. Where
this is successful, the nearby population
can enjoy more water in their streams
and wells.
At the same time we cannot be allowed
to underestimate the performance
of the forests here in the northern
hemisphere. As they grow, these forest
reduce the total amount of CO2 in the
air by 1/3.
CO2-Speicher CO2 storage Baum tree
Kohlensto Kohlenstoff
hl Carbon (C) wird (C) in is Holz, stored in
Sauerstoff Oxygen (O2)
Blättern wood, und Wurzeln leaves, and roots
(O2)
gespeichert
Kohlendioxid Carbon (CO2) dioxide (CO2)
Laub
Leaves
Wurzeln, Roots, Pflanzenteile parts of und plants Bodenlebewesen and soil organisms store
bilden den Kohlenstoffspeicher carbon in im the Boden soil
Every single tree
stores CO2!

Trees and forests aren’t just our allies
solely in the fight against global warming.
They also provide incredible
benefits to their immediate surroundings
– benefits that can be felt even
without the use of measuring devices.
Let’s go back to the beech tree. On a
sunny summer day it absorbs through
its leaves about 9,400 liters* (gallons)
But that’s not all. During a summer “working
day,” each tree draws 6,000 litres of
water up from the ground – the equivalent
of about 40 bathtubs filled to the
brim. From this impressive amount of
water the tree only needs 1 per mille (0.1
percent), about 6 litres directly for its
“work” (photosynthesis). The remaining
99.9 percent will be “exhaled” by the
tree as water vapour and this exhalation
dramatically cools the surrounding air,
while greatly increasing the humidity.
Together, both effects produce the cool
damp forest climate that is particularly
pleasant on a hot summer day.
*
Cities that have many streets and buildings
can become unbearably hot. These
cities could make their “climate” much
more pleasant by planting many trees
of CO2 and releases the same amount
of oxygen (O2) back out into the atmos-
along the roads and by creating many
tiny parks in the nearby places where
people work and live.
phere.
Another positive thing is that trees filter
out many kinds of dust * particles –
Whoever thinks that isn’t enough about 80 percent - from city air. When
should first consider that in order for people decide to cut down trees in
each beech tree to absorb 9,400 liters
of pure CO2, it has to filter up to 24,737
urban areas just to make room for more
parking spots, they aren’t only attacking
cubic meters of air. This is about the
same amount of air that is found in 7
the forest, they are attacking the lungs
of the city dwellers, too.
giant hot air balloons! How is that not a
truly gigantic impact?
Be careful:
9,400 liters
of gas is not
the same as
9,400 liters of
liquid!
1 liter of CO2
weighs only 1.96
grams, but that
means that it
takes in over 18
kilograms of CO2
every day!
* Dust is made
So, when we are asked if our tree The UNESCO teacher Gerhard de Haan
planting campaign is truly meaningful, once called us students from Plant-for-
we can say: Yes, and on both large and the-Planet, “diplomats in rubber boots.”
small scales! Trees can, root for root, He said this because unlike many poli-
stem the tide against climate change, ticians and diplomats, we want to be
by drawing the greenhouse gas CO2 active; we want to take our knowledge
out of the air and storing it in their plant and put it into action.
bodies.
Don’t just talk,
And they improve the air we breathe but plant trees!
every day – something that provides
great relief, especially in big cities.
We aren’t just planting trees with our
global campaign. Above all we want to
educate and inform other children and
teenagers about the climate crisis and
let them know about all the ways they
can get involved and help do something
for the climate. Our trees are symbols –
We children are planting trees all
over the world to save our future
symbols of climate justice.
48 49
up of microscopic
particles that
are so tiny they
can penetrate
deep into our
lungs and cause
damage there.
A single tree can take
in this much air in
just a single day!

What everyone can do …
Or: protecting the climate
at home 52
About doing it yourself ...
Or: about school and
learning for life 58
Tree by Tree …
Or: the great big planting
party 66
Trees for the south …
Or: 10 euro = 10 trees 74
Our planet needs Climate
Justice Ambassadors and
Future Lobbyists…
Or: the Plant-for-the-Planet
Academy 84
“One mosquito can’t do anything against a rhino,
but a thousand mosquitoes together can make a
rhino change its direction.”
Carolina (14), Climate Justice
Ambassador from Cancun, Mexico
What We Can Do
3.

What everyone can do ...
Or: protecting the climate at home
When we think about what a single person can do to limit the impacts of climate
change, it often leads to a sinking feeling - a feeling of hopelessness: “Yeah,
what’s the use, if I’m only one person…”
There is really only one good, sensible answer: every big
change is made up of smaller ones, and one small effort to do
the right thing will lead to more small efforts, and more will
eventually lead to many, until the goal which originally looked
impossible is already achieved. Good examples are contagious!
It is worthwhile taking a closer look at a few examples from our everyday lives,
even the “obvious” ones.
What’s wrong with traffic?
About how many hours of radio would a person have to listen to, if they wanted
to count all the traffic reports and stories of every traffic accident that has ever
occurred? Sometimes we just have to ask ourselves if cars really do make our
lives any easier – especially when we consider how much exhaust they put into
the air every day. Clearly, those who don’t live in cities would have a much harder
time getting by without one, but is it necessary for everybody to travel every
single mile by car?
“But riding just a
couple of kilometers
on my bike
isn’t going to do
anything to protect
the climate”, many say. But whoever said that it had to stop at just a couple of
kilometers? Every time that I ride my bike to music lessons or to sport practice,
rather than being dropped off and picked up by my mom with her car, I save
3,360 grams of CO2. And if I use my bike 30 weeks each year (subtracting
out vacation and the times when the weather doesn’t allow), then I can end up
single-handedly keeping 100 kilograms of CO2 from entering the atmosphere –
an impressive amount!
And what about holidays? Here’s something to think about: each flight from
Munich to Palma de Mallorca and back emits about 680 kilograms of CO2 into
the air, per person. A bit much right? We are definitely not saying that everybody
has to completely give up flying – but is it really necessary for us to do it every
year?
Energy eaters at home
When my family mentions to other people that we switched to energy-efficient light
bulbs in our house a long time ago, we often hear some gentle laughter and are
asked if we know that light bulbs use hardly any power in comparison to some
of the other electricity-users at home. Sure, we know this, but we also know that
COCO2-Ausstoß Emissions 2 auf 100 for km
every 100 km
We don’t want to give anybody a guilty conscience, just because they have a car
and use it. Our focus is more on the big picture, the incredibly large number of
trips that could be saved by simply changing people’s habits: “But I’m too slow
Jule
when I ride my bike” is something we hear a lot. However, this is definitely not
true when it comes to traveling in cities. Take the city of Munich for example. Its
network of bicycle paths alone is more than 1,200 kilometers long! So while car
drivers are forced to sit and wait at traffic lights and traffic jams, bike riders are
likely to have already arrived at their destination.
[13, from Bremen, Germany] 52 53
and Merle [13, from Bremen, Germany ]
When we were first asked about the specific things we do at home to protect
the climate it took us a moment to realize that there was nothing out of the ordinary! It’s probably
just because for us students with Plant-for-the-Planet, protecting the climate is a matter of course.
For example, we “automatically” turn off the heater, the light, the computer, and any other electronic
devices when we don’t need them or when we leave a room. We often leave the car at home, too,
travelling instead by train or by bike if it’s summer. And we save water by taking short showers. We
just try to save energy everywhere we can. Also, Jule is a vegetarian and Merle eats only a little bit of
meat, which makes a big impact. And we always separate our trash and recycle … oh yeah, and we
plant trees!

Climate
protection in
the refrigerator
Climate
protection in the
stove
when you add a lot of little things together, you end up with a very big result. Why
else did the European Union decide to ban traditional incandescent light bulbs
starting in 2012? We are very supportive of this idea, so much so that we hope it
is implemented sooner and that energy-efficient light bulbs are made available to
everyone as soon as possible. Every kilowatt hour that isn’t consumed equals an
average of 616 grams of CO2 saved! So the sooner this new standard is implemented,
the better.
It seems that refrigerators and freezers consume quite a bit of energy – especially
if they are in the wrong place and ill-used. Refrigerator next to the stove? Bad idea.
It would constantly have to cool itself from the heat coming from the oven. How
about placing piping hot food inside of the refrigerator? Even worse! The refrigerator
would have to use much more energy to cool the food than it would if the food
was first allowed to cool on its own on the countertop. What about a freezer in an
unheated storage room? Perfect! Here’s another quick and simple tip to reduce
your refrigerator’s energy usage: if it’s set to 7 °C (44.6 degrees Fahrenheit) rather
than 5 °C (41 degrees Fahrenheit) it can use up to 15 percent less electricity!
At the other end of the temperature scale, there are a lot of ways in which energy
can be saved while cooking. Sometimes it is as simple as putting a lid on it!
Those who cook with a lid cut their energy usage by a 1/3, and those who use a
pressure cooker instead of just a normal pot cut their energy usage by another 40
percent on top of that. It’s just as effective with the baking oven. Keep the door
shut! This is because every time that the oven’s door is opened, 20 percent of
the heat escapes and more energy has to be used to bring it back to the original
temperature.
Conventional
electricity
Greenelectricity
konventioneller
Strom
54 Another extra tip for tea-drinkers. Those who heat a litre of water in a kettle rather
than in a tea kettle on the stovetop save around 32 grams of CO2. That adds up!
for an entire year, they will save around 3,265 kilogram of CO2!
55
Climate
protection in
the trash can
Climate
protection at
home
An enormous amount of CO2 can be saved at home when we avoid excess waste.
Every kilo of garbage is not only a waste of money, but on average 320 grams of
CO2, too. Avoiding waste is the most direct form of climate protection possible!
The best thing of course is to eliminate as much of it as you can. Did you know
that a glass bottle can be reused up to 50 times, and a plastic bottle up to 25
times before it is necessary for them to be thrown out? And when that time comes,
should they go to the landfill? No! They should be recycled. If we separate our
trash, re-use what we can, and then recycle it when we’re finished, our amount
of actual non-reusable waste will shrink to a reasonably small and manageable
amount.
The most energy can be saved at home when the house itself is
“climate-friendly.” However, this topic is so extensive that we cannot
truly begin to cover it in this book. Fortunately, there are many sources
of information, for example about how to insulate your windows with the
proper materials. You can also find plenty of information about smaller
and easier things that you can begin to change when you want to retro-fit
your house to save as much energy as possible.
Changing the electricity
supplier?
Frustrating but true: the big energy companies are stubborn when it comes to
letting go of irresponsible technologies such as coal and nuclear power. And
unfortunately they are not at all impressed by arguments like ours. But they
understand one language very well: and that is the language of money. When
they are threatened with the loss of their customers and profits they are forced
to listen, whether they want to or not! Therefore, it would be really fantastic if
as many of us as possible were able to switch to more environmentally friendly
energy providers. The change is actually quite simple!
Switching to green-energy providers is not only a political action, it is also a
more direct way to protect the environment. Generating green-energy creates
only 1/3 of the amount of CO2 produced by conventional means.
If a four-person family uses green-electricity instead of conventional electricity
How much CO2 is on my plate?
You can eat healthy, organic, low-calorie food that is above all climate-friendly! But
how?
A couple of examples from Germany: 500 grams of strawberries from
Germany create (during the strawberry season from May to July) 80 grams less
CO2 than the same amount of strawberries shipped in from Italy. And in comparison
with strawberries from South Africa, German strawberries create 6,000
fewer grams of CO2. Moreover, 500 grams of organic butter saves 425 grams
Ökostrom
CO2 Emissions in Comparison
Climate
protection on
the dinner plate
Climate
protection in
the shopping
basket
CO2-Ausstoß im Vergleich

of CO2 compared to conventional butter, and 1 kilogram of eco-bread creates 1.1
kilogram less CO2 than the same amount of conventional bread.
Grocery stores – even the most conventional ones – react fairly reliably to customer
requests. When for example the head of the fruit and vegetable department
notices that customers are beginning to show an interest in how many miles particular
foods have to be transported before arriving in the store, they will certainly
respond to it. They are not reacting because they are in sudden agreement with
environmental arguments like ours. No, they react because they want to attract a
particular variety of customers. But that doesn’t have to matter to us. What’s most
important is that environmentally friendly products are gaining ground and making
their way onto the shelves of regular supermarkets.
Sometimes, though, things are a little bit more complicated than they appear at
first glance. Exactly how environmentally friendly certain fruits and vegetables
are, depends to a large extent on whether they are harvested during their actual
growing season. You can read more about this under “The thing with apples.” .”
More important than all of the kilometres travelled, ecologically grown apples
and recycled tin cans, there is something else: The responsible, economical,
The thing with apples:
What is Meatless Monday?
An international movement to help people reduce their meat consumption by
An apple from Germany is not always automatically more environmentally friendly
15% to improve personal health and the health of the planet. It is an initiative
than an apple from Chile or New Zealand. This is because the month-long
of The Monday Campaigns, in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
storage of the German apple in a cool storage facility consumes quite a bit of
energy and therefore emits quite a bit of CO2 into the air. Climate friendly local
School of Public Health in the USA.
apples are therefore only available during the time of their harvest, from Sep-
Why meatless?
56 tember until May. From June until the next harvest in September, however, the
On average, Americans consume 8 ounces of meat per day – 45% more than
57
apples from New Zealand are better off in terms of climate protection despite
the USDA recommends. Going meatless once a week can reduce the risk of
the fact that they have been shipped halfway around the world. In any case, it is
chronic preventable conditions and can also help limit the carbon footprint
always better to purchase fruit that has been freshly harvested – without the long
and save precious resources like fresh water and fossil fuel. One day without
wait in a storage facility and without the thousands of transport miles.
meat saves as much greenhouse gases as one day without car driving.
Just to compare: One kilogram of fruits or vegetables from the local region
emits on average 230 grams of CO2; a kilogram from another European country
emits on average 460 grams of CO2, if it is transported by ship, then we are
already at 570 grams of CO2, and if it is transported by airplane then it reaches
11,000 grams of CO2 per kilogram.
Do we absolutely have to eat strawberries in winter?
and sustainable use of energy must be as natural as – say – the answer to the
question: “Can I steal it?” Everyone knows the answer without thinking too long. It’s
already instilled in us – not only in our head, but also in our heart.
If an environmentally friendly behaviour is firmly instilled in us -- that is, when it
has become like second nature – then a tremendous amount will already be won.
If, however, we constantly have to remind ourselves every single time why being
wasteful is so bad, then we are losing the precious time that remains for us to do
even better.
Therefore: we have to have the courage to take small
steps! Courage, especially because the more we have,
the more people will join in and the easier it will become!
Meatless Monday
Everybody knows … no, everybody should know: becoming a vegetarian
does not mean giving up your enjoyment of food. In fact, it leaves quite an
enjoyable aftertaste: a good conscience. Whoever eats a lot of conventional
meat emits nearly twice as much CO2 per year compared to someone who
chooses to eat mostly vegetarian and ecological foods!
The campaign is supported by personalities, celebrities and leaders such
as Michael Pollan, Al Gore, Sir Paul McCartney, Gwyneth Paltrow and Mario
Batali.
What works in the USA could very well work in many other countries around
the world! We are already starting to push for this kind of change, and you
can join in.
Every single person should grab the bull by the horns and ask themselves if it
is really necessary to eat so much meat.

About doing
it yourself …
Or: about school and
learning for life
Felix’s presentation in his school – the Munich International School in Starnberg
at Percha – marked the beginning of Plant-for-the-Planet. What is important,
maybe even more important than the presentation itself, was something else:
the re action that people had to it, particularly the reactions from his teacher
Tonianne Phillips and the head of school Mary Seppala and Eif Phillips. Without
their encouragement, Plant-for-the-Planet would probably never have come into
existence. And if Felix’s fellow students hadn’t been so excited to get involved
in his plan to plant trees all over the world, then his idea would most likely have
gone no further.
Many of us kids have had similar luck as Felix, we have received support from
both our classmates and teachers from the outset. In fact, we find the role of
schools to be extremely important in the success of Plant-for-the-Planet.
The first thing we normally hear from adults though is not encouragement, rather
school because they give students the opportunity to work on their own ideas.
doubt: “It’s great when children take responsibility and get involved, but what’s
At many other schools, the children do not receive such positive encourage-
the point of bothering with this problem? Children should enjoy their freedom and
ment. We think it would be fantastic if more schools would allow the same kind
let adults concern themselves with these kinds of issues. The serious side of life
of opportunities for their students like the community school in Berlin. We even
will come soon enough. Schools are already too stressful; you shouldn’t have
heard from Max, Szesima, and Karoline that there is a subject at their school
58 to deal with global problems too, especially not with problems as difficult as the
called “ responsibility,” something similar to civics or ethics in which they discuss
59
climate crisis and the coming famine.”
the structure of state and society and how they could or should ideally be. We
were very curious about this and when Max explained to us what it was all about,
Every one of us has heard this response or others like it before.
we learned that this school subject is above all about how to take initiative.
Don’t pull the
wool over our
eyes!
Many adults who think that this is all too difficult for us to handle, don’t understand
that standing up and facing reality isn’t half as difficult as reading about
and seeing all the threats to our future in the news and on TV and hearing that
we can’t do anything about it anyway because it is already too late. Most adults
only see it from their perspective. For them the future only means 20, 30, or 40
years, but for us it’s 70, 80, or even 90 years and 2100 is still in our lifetime.
If the sea level rises 1, 2, or even 7 meters, it will be a matter of survival for us
children; for grown-ups, it is purely a theoretical question.
We are doing this because we want to have a positive future.
Whoever has experienced this knows: there is absolutely nothing better than
sharing a single mindset with others and working with them to change the world.
This gives more of both, power and courage!
And on the issue of frustration and overload: We just want to reassure the adults
that striving for a better future isn’t tiresome, it’s both meaningful and fun!
Schools can really be a great help for us kids when they give us more opportunities
to engage in autonomous and independent projects.
A good example can be seen with Max, Szesima, and Karoline. They go to the
Protestant Community School in Central Berlin and at their school, Plant-for-the-
Planet planting parties are incredibly successful.
But that is nowhere near the end of it. Positive action is often taken at this
After hearing this, we thought it would be interesting to conduct an interview with
the Principle of his school, Margaret Rasfeld.
We want
support!
School subject
“Responsibility”

Dear Ms.Rasfeld, what is the school subject “responsibility” about?
when they were little, which were really well received by the younger children
The subject “responsibility” means, in short, that each child independently
there. Gradually, the nearly deserted playground was completely revived.
engages in community service projects. The aim of it is to advance their
Others have been trained as museum tour guides and have given tours not only
personal development, simply by opening the school and giving the students
for their peers but also for adults. One fascinating thing I saw was a group of
the opportunity to accomplish their own ideas with their own drive “outside” the
seventh-graders who set up a free course, giving computer lessons to residents
school walls. Their ideas don’t necessarily need a social purpose, but in most
of the retirement home. They announced the courses by putting up flyers in well
cases they end up having one nevertheless.
known doctors’ offices and organized everything completely on their own. Amazingly,
the lessons that they gave to the seniors would have been a typical class
So what exactly do the students end up doing?
for ninth-graders. These seventh-graders even managed to reduce the fears of
Many go to their old kindergartens or pre-schools and do work there. Some
an older woman who at first was absolutely convinced that everything she typed
help out with whatever they can while others make the playgrounds a little bit
on a computer would destroy the program.
better by creating pathways or little mud huts for the children. Others conduct
The computer kids have developed an awareness of long-term quality. They very
research. Some have set up small experiments from their own physics and
carefully considered to whom of the candidates among the younger students
chemistry lessons that are both safe and interesting for pre-school children.
who wanted to take over the course, they would pass it along to. If somebody
Obviously, they have to check in advance to make certain that this is allowed and
seriously wanted to succeed the current group, he or she had to first sit in and
that the experiment will work as it should.
attend the class. That is absolutely wonderful and they did it not just to say that
Then there are the students who go to retirement homes where they play board
games with the residents, read to them and help them with their fine motor
they taught computer lessons. They truly wanted this good cause to continue.
exercises so that they can keep their hand dexterity. Playing ball is, for example,
That’s learning for life then, is it not?
a great exercise. Or they organize “mystery hours”. The children are especially
Yes, exactly. Some call on the challenges that they have faced, when searching
helpful there during the “animal days” when visitors can bring their pets in and
for a job developing personal responsibility. Case in point: a girl, whose parents
the residents can enjoy their company.
had lived as refugees in Berlin, chose to work at an asylum for other foreign
refugees. She is Albanian, and because there was nobody at the asylum who
And what do the students learn from these projects?
spoke Albanian, she was able to help the staff by working as an interpreter.
The children, of course, experience aspects of life that they may not yet be
When students take on such tasks they receive school credit for up to 2 or 3
familiar with, even sometimes with death. I know, for example, of a young
lessons per week. This is clearly not a loss for them, because in their “respon-
woman who had deliberately chosen to visit a retirement home for her focus
sibility” hours they are learning more than they would in normal classes. This is
on “responsibility”. I then learned that there was an unresolved death in her
something completely different to when a teacher says: “Imagine you would have
60 family. From her experience in the retirement home she was able to go home
…” No, they have to realize that the best way for students to see how they can
61
and provide encouragement for her mother and help her to deal with the death,
shape, change, and improve the world is to experience these things themselves
which brought their family closer together.
On the other hand, a student who had selected a day-care center got along much
– not just imagine them.
better with her younger sister, with whom she used to always fight and argue. She
How did your school get involved with Plant-for-the-Planet?
says that now she understands much better how little kids tick and what they need.
We have held events and activities at our school for environmental protection
before. And when I first had a flyer from Felix Finkbeiner and his Initiative in my
Do the community centers feel that they benefit from this program?
hands, I invited him to be part of our program “People with a Message” so that
Yes, absolutely. A group of students had accepted a partnership with a local
he could explain more about his planting campaign to the students. Felix spoke
playground for example. They did things there like reporting when playground
for us at a school assembly in July of 2008 and we spontaneously decided that
equipment had become defective, painted the climbing equipment to help fight
we would plant 100,000 trees in Berlin. That is of course a gigantic number but
off rust, collected bottles and paper and cleaned the playground of other trash
when we started to have doubts about whether it was even do-able, one of the
as well. And they brought back a lot of simple games they used to play with
students said: “We are the Capital, we have to be a role model for the others!”
Social commitment
is exciting!
Action for the
community
Learning for life

*More about the
training of
Climate Justice
Ambassadors is
on page 84
A “Yes we can”
experience
We decided then to start holding climate justice academies, and so far we
have empowered 168 Climate Justice Ambassadors.* Most of them now give
introductory speeches about the climate crisis to other students. We have also
invited forest rangers or tree nursery experts to tell us which trees are the best
to plant and where. The children have taken it upon themselves to consider
which places are the most effective to buy tree-seedlings from. With the help of
doctors’ offices and organic restaurants they have had an exceptionally good
experience. As a teacher, it is very difficult sometimes to try and determine
just from a letter what’s going to be truly effective and leave lasting results and
what’s going to be just wishful thinking. The difference between the two is like
the difference between a feast and a page in a cookbook.
If you all want to know more about the activities at our school, check out our
homepage on the internet: www.ev-schule-zentrum.de
Thank you Ms.Rasfeld for this very interesting interview!
But that is not the only encouraging example. In her school in Neuss on the
Rhine, Joy together with her Friend Luna started something really fantastic.
In September 2009, they started the project “Activity: Plant-for-the-Planet.” *
Their goal: to show their fellow students how important climate justice is and
how they could work on achieving it together.
Just to show you that this process isn’t any
different for us, we are going to tell you about
our personal experiences in our schools:
Raphael [12, Aichach, Germany]
The reactions varied.
Some said: “Hey, I want to
do that!” and others said
“What a lousy idea, whatever.”
In any case, my parents and
my teacher Ms. Bueschl supported
me 100 percent.
They think the idea is as
important as I do.
Program: “Activity:
Plant-for-the-Planet”
They have independently developed a complete program that continued over
many weeks.
Josia [11, Duisburg, Germany]
62 Some told me that
63
Of course, such great projects aren’t found in every school. But you can change
they thought it was
this at your own school! Try it, it’s simple – talk with your parents, with your
really cool. In fact, a couple
school friends, and with your teachers – and you will find that it’s quite easy for
of people in my grade came
anybody to set up a project like this. You could even, for example, take this
up to me and said that they
book to your school’s Principle and insist that they read it. A little later go back
finally had a goal they wanted
and ask if they are willing to support you to get your plan up and running. And if
to achieve. In a pretty short
your Principle doesn’t want to, then ask a teacher who you really like, somebody
amount of time we had already
who is really helpful!
And just because one person or another might not at first be immediately thrilled
about our idea, you should keep trying!
set up a student club for Plantfor-the-Planet.
Week 1
Introduction and finding out what the
students already know about global warming
Week 2
Plant-for-the-Planet presentation, “Trees for
Climate Justice” and a concluding discussion
Week 3
“What exactly is climate justice?”
“How can it be implemented?”
Week 4 and 5
“Global warming and its consequences for
the environment”
“What trees can do against the climate
crisis”
“Expansion and deepening of the facts and
complicated relationships”
Week 6
Watch a film together about the climate crisis
with a concluding discussion
Week 7
Create posters/collages over different
environmental changes that are caused
by
global warming
Week 8 and 9
Various lectures from current Climate Justice
Ambassadors
Week 10
Develop “plans of action” to develop the
international network and to spread
knowledge
Week 11
Seek support to lead planting parties on
school grounds and prepare for fund-raisers

Clara [12, Augsburg, Germany]
In school I am trying with the help of my Principal and one of our teachers to
establish an environmental action group.
My friends were the ones who gave me the nickname “Climate-Clara”, but I
think it’s really cool. A friend of mine even went to an Academy in Augsburg.
My classmates were at first really excited. But after a while, as sometimes
happens, some of the guys in our class started to roll their eyes when my
friends and I came up with stuff to do for Plant-for-the-Planet. So my friends
and I simply explained to them the reality of the situation and said that if they
couldn’t understand, it was their own problem, not ours.
I hope that we can plant more than a million trees and also make certain that
recycled paper and bio-products are used in as many ways in our school as
possible (copiers, magazines, tissue paper). But for that we will probably
need the help of more fellow activists.
Jule and Merle [13, Bremen, Germany]
People react very differently to our commitment to climate protection. Many
from our school don’t really care about the issue actually. Sometimes we hear
ironic or patronizing comments about our motto, for example: “Isn’t that great,
you’re so committed to the climate, but …”
But there are also positive reactions. During our class lecture some of our
teachers were envious of us, because we held the attention of the other students
so well and everybody listened, participated, and asked questions about what
we were presenting. A comment we received afterwards was for example: “That
was a really awe some speech!” Children who usually never paid attention in class
listened and responded to our lecture. It was so good that a year later a teacher
still remembered our lecture and was very impressed that we were still active.
Because we had not received support in our school right from the beginning,
we decided to get active in our free time. We wanted to finally become Climate
Justice Ambassadors!
Rufat [12, Baku, Azerbaijan]
When it was announced in the press that a panel discussion on climate change
The first time I heard about Plant-for-the-Planet was at the UNEP Tunza Conference in June
was going to take place in our town hall, of course we went on our way to
2008. Felix gave a presentation about the organization there and ever since I have kept
myself updated by visiting their internet site. It really moved me, because the knowledge and information
I found on the Plant-for-the-Planet website completely fits my interests.
participate …
Joy [12, Krefeld, Germany]
64 I am a member of the Plant-for-the-Planet’s Global Board because I want to work together with those
I think many of my classmates
65
children from all around the world who also want to save our future.
find the idea interesting, but
are still not yet self-motivated to do
In order to educate my fellow students about Plant-for-the-Planet, I gave a 15 minute presentation on
something. I think they feel powerless,
the topic of climate change (with my parent’s permission of course). My friends already knew I was
although I have already explained to
very interested in questions about our future and about the challenges we will have to face because
them that we can use the internet to
of the climate crisis, so when I gave my presentation about Plant-for-the-Planet they became excited
bring large groups of people together,
about it, too!
groups which will have a lot of influence.
Maybe, if I too had only ever
Together my friends and I have planted around 1,000 trees this year. I am always trying to motivate
lived in Germany, then the destruction
them to plant even more. Our ultimate goal is to increase the number of planting parties and cam-
of the environment might not seem so
paigns, to share our knowledge with others, and to get as many new people involved as possible!
urgent to me either. It’s not as easy for
people to see this destruction here as
it is for people in other places around
the world.

Tree by Tree …
Or: the great big planting party
When we asked our Polish friends Ula and Kamil
why they organize tree-planting parties in their own
small town of Borek, they replied by saying:
“We do it because trees are the lungs of the world. There is no life without trees.
They are also a beautiful symbol. In our school we have a custom in which every
first-grader plants a tree behind the school. This way we get to watch and see
how their tree grows at the same time as they do. However, the trees stay, long
after pupils or students have finished school. We organize tree-planting parties
because we want to show that even though we are kids we can
still do something meaningful … We don’t just talk like politicians
do; we get to work. Also, 7 million trees alone were destroyed
during the last big storm in our region, which is another really
good reason to plant some more!
Max [12, Berlin, Germany]
We are allowed to plant trees on
ground that the city has provided
for us. For example, we have planted a tiny
forest in Pankow on the outskirts of Berlin. After
the forestry department gave us the ground
there, we asked a forest ranger, Mr. Franusch,
which trees are best suited for the area and
when is a good time to plant them.
This is how we spread the news about our
planting-parties: if you call up 5 people,
We agree:
Stop talking. Start planting.
and then if 2 of those people call another
2, and those 2 call another 2, etc … then
when planting-time comes, there will be a lot
of people there to help! We also use T-shirts
from Plant-for-the-Planet, flyers, and posters
to spread the news, as well as mass e-mails.
On top of that we often speak to the press
and ask them if they can support the planting
campaigns by writing stories in the newspaper
or talking about it on the radio and TV.
New tree planters need to ask themselves a few questions:
How do I find partners to join in?
How do I make certain that as many people know about the
event as possible and how to get them excited about it too?
Where can I plant?
Which trees grow where?
Where can I get the young trees from?
Who can record our planting-party?
Sounds hard? It’s not half as difficult as it sounds because we have already
organized a lot of planting-parties ourselves, and so we have gained a lot of
experience from them. Anyone who wants to organize a planting party of their
own can draw on our experiences without all of the hassle.
The most important rule first: things are a lot simpler
(and a lot more fun!) when you work together with others.
66 67
Leon [13, Cologne, Germany]
We had a lot of fun planting.
Although it rained and was a little
chilly, our group of 30 kids planted 1,000 trees
in a little less than 2 and a half hours!
Usually when we want to organize a tree-planting
party, we start by sending emails to our friends,
putting up posters on the bulletin-boards at
school and telling everyone we see what’s going
on.
All we need for planting is a sturdy spade and
a pair of rubber boots. Then the forest rangers
will show us the piece of land that is our planting
site. Often they have a line of tree seedlings
already prepared and ready to be planted. Then
we kids dig holes just deep enough to cover the
tree roots when the plant is in the earth. After
that we put the tree-seedling in the hole and
press the dirt firmly around it and start on the
next hole. Pretty simple!

Find
partners!
How to find partners to join in
The best partners can be found in your circle of friends or in your family. Usually it is
enough just to tell them about the planned tree planting and they will be so interested
that they will immediately ask if they can come along. Naturally your answer
will be, “Of course, the more the better!”
Giving a school presentation about the climate crisis is also a very good way to find
people who want to help out with a tree-planting party. After all, the Plant-for-the-
Planet Initiative all started with Felix’s presentation. If you make certain to end your
speeches by holding up a shovel and saying: “So, we have talked enough about the
climate crisis, now what do we want to DO about it?” then you are guaranteed to
convince quite a few of your fellow students to join in with the party..
Where you can find planting locations
Of course you can’t just roll up your sleeves, take a shovel in hand, and go marching
around planting any kind of tiny trees or bushes anywhere you want. Otherwise what
could easily happen is that the place where you plant a bunch of trees one day is
cut down the next, in order to make room for a new football stadium or a factory …
and all of your trees and hard work cut down with it.
Josia [11, Duisburg, Germany]
My planting-party took place in the
summer of 2009 as part of the
Duisburg Environmental Days. Felix and our city
mayor, who also planted a tree, were both there.
Felix was the sponsor, or maybe the “chief supporter”
of the Environment Days. (Finally a kid got
to do it!) Also, many reporters showed up, some
of them with cameras. Then several of us kids
stood up and introduced to them what we have
already done for Plant-for-the-Planet.
Niklas [12, Cologne, Germany]
I plant trees not only because I want
to do something for the environment,
but also because I hope that we can work
together to create a balanced world, after we
stop cutting down the rainforest.
It makes me really happy to see that every tree
somebody plants makes small little changes for
the better in our environment.
The ground where the plants are going to be grown must first be given up by its
owners – sometimes a private individual, but also sometimes the city, the state,
or the country – specifically for this purpose. The best thing is to first ask a forest
ranger at a local forest office for possible locations.
Or you can go to the city or municipality and ask the person who is responsible for
the maintenance of parks and green spaces.
No worries! The people there are almost always open-minded and helpful when
they are working with dedicated young people. And maybe they will even help you
organizing the party!
How to find the best trees
So, you’ve found a place to plant trees. What comes next? That’s right, finding
the right tree seedlings! They should be well suited to their future location. Forest
rangers are your best go-to-people for this. They know exactly which species
grow better in direct sunlight and which kinds grow better in shade; as well as, for
example, the fact that pines prefer sandy soil while alders enjoy having wet “feet”.
Or you can simply take a look around at a local tree-nursery – there are usually
professionals there who you can ask for advice.”.
Or you can simply take a look around at a local tree-nursery – there are usually
professionals there who you can turn to for advice.
Raphael [12, Aichach, Germany]
I took up the leadership of our
tree-planting event in December
2009. The father of one of my fellow students had
donated not only the ground to us but even the
trees, too. Our teacher, Ms. Bueschl had made up
a schedule to make sure that we would be planting
on a day with nice weather. And it was a complete
success. Surrounded by the local press, our class
planted over 500 tree-seedlings.
Find places
to plant!
Find the
right trees!
68 69
Latest news: A decision was made by the
children’s council on the 6 February 2010: the
Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation will be donating
a large piece of land to my school for our next
tree-planting campaign this spring. Whoohoo! We
convinced the community!

Getting
the trees!
What trees like …
and what they don’t
How and where you can get the trees
You can almost always get tree-seedlings donated from the forestry department
or from the city. If not (unlikely!), then you will be able to find tree donators or
other sponsors for sure: simply ask a greenhouse, a tree-nursery, or a hardware
store with a garden department near to your place, if they want to support you
with your tree-planting event.
Benedikt and his Environmental Action Group with its, “Run for Trees” campaign
have assembled a lot of suggestions on where to find sponsors, which you will
learn more about in the next chapter. In their experience, sponsors can be found
most easily when they are told that the media will be at the event.
A couple of small tips for tree planting
Of all of the tips on planting, there is one which
you are under no circumstances allowed to ignore:
“Planting trees is not a complicated process, but
you can still make a number of small mistakes.”
That is why it is good in any case, and at the very
least during your first tree-planting party, to have
a “professional” by your side to help explain the
process and correct any mistakes -- someone like a
forest ranger or an employee from the forest depart-
2,000 trees in a
single afternoon!
ment or a tree-nursery. But there are also hobby
gardeners who have plenty of experience in treeplanting
and who would be helpful to bring along. All
a tree needs to feel comfortable in its new home for
many decades is just a little bit of sensitivity while
being planted. If it is just stuffed hastily into the
ground, its growth will be stunted forever.
The most important thing: the roots need space.
In order for its roots to be able to grow, the hole
in which the tree is planted needs to be twice as
deep and twice as wide as the ball of roots. This is
because the roots need to be able to grow out in
How you can bring attention to your
tree-planting party
This brings us to (almost) the most important part: have you thought about inviting
the press to your planting-party? We do want, after all, to make sure that as
many people as possible hear our idea and are inspired by it. The more people
the better.
With the media it is always best to inform them about the event as soon as
possible. When you leave it too late, it is highly likely that they will have already
made other commitments. We have had particularly good experiences with our
regional broadcasting stations. This is because our planting-parties are always
great photo opportunities, so we are usually seen as a “godsend” for photographers
and for TV crews.
Think a little bit about your event
in advance. Especially about who
would be the best person to give
a short interview in front of a
camera. It can’t hurt to practice
a little bit in advance too. It is best to be able
to give short and convincing answers. The questions they will be asked
are fairly predictable though: “Why are you all planting trees? How did this idea
come about? What is your goal? How do other children react, and how do adults
react to your campaign?”
all directions, a bit like an octopus spreading its
tentacles.
Before the trees are placed in the holes, you
should soak the roots in water one last time.
This helps to make sure that the tree has enough
water to survive the acclimatization period until its
roots are fully grown and it can soak up enough
water out of the ground to thrive in its new home.
The trees should not be planted too deep into
the soil. It is ok if the top of the roots can still be
seen above the ground because if the plants are
planted too deeply, then their roots could begin
Spread the
idea!
70 71
to rot.
Another small tip: A small mound of earth around
the stem is a big help. This ensures that the
irrigation water doesn’t immediately go away, but
instead seeps into the ground right there, where
the tree needs it.
The best times of the year to plant are spring and
autumn. Most trees have the best chance of survival
during these seasons. However, the really
important thing is that nobody gets discouraged
if their trees grow slower than others, or not as
tall - that is completely normal.

* You can order
t-shirts and
flyers on our
homepage!
How your planting campaign can
become a real party
What about food and drinks for the planting-party? Can your parents help out?
Some students in Augsburg made waffles and sold them for Plant-for-the-Planet
at a school carnival. This is also a great idea for a planting party!
Maybe your grandma can bake you a cake? Somebody else can make a pastasalad
and bring it along? Another person can take care of crockery and cutlery?
Maybe the local supermarket or drinks shop can even sponsor your planting
party for the day by donating a garden table and/or drinks and refreshments?
In any case, our experience is that people are much more likely to help when we
explain our cause and why we are planting trees.
From what we have seen, wearing your Plant-for-the-Planet t-shirt while seeking
sponsorship for a tree-planting party is especially helpful.* Firstly, this gives
people the feeling that they’re contributing to something that is really important.
It also makes it clear that your planting-party isn’t a single “lonely” event, but that
it’s part of something much bigger.
While it might prove difficult, you can try to invite celebrities from the area, (local
politicians for example) to your planting-party. It is best to inform them about
it some time in advance – and it helps if they know that the local press will be
there too. Every politician will gladly stand in front of a camera or a microphone!
Now that you have organised everything – a planting team, tree-seedlings,
spades, the planting grounds, food and drinks – you can finally get started! In
order to know how to plant a seedling so that it grows into a healthy tree that
will absorb a lot of CO2 during its lifetime, it is best to ask a forester – preferably
Else
one who can accompany you during your first planting-party.
The act of organising a planting party (let alone planting lots of
trees for climate justice) is something you can really be proud of!
Your planting-party is part of a global call to action.
All over the world children are planting trees. We are like one big global family
because tree by tree we children are fighting for our future. When we have
planted a million trees in every country on Earth, then everyone will have finally
[12, Munich, Germany] 72 73
and Miriam [12, Munich, Germany]
We attend the 6th class of the Ernst-Mach-Gymnasium in Haar near Munich.
We were hooked immediately when we learned about Plant-for-the-Planet.
Our teacher provided us more information and we did research in the Internet. The idea of Felix has
inspired us. To learn more, we became Climate Justice Ambassadors in March 2009 in the Plant-forthe-Planet
Academy in the Evangelical Academy in Tutzing. We were very proud of ourselves when we
held the certificates in our hands. Meanwhile, we have already given 25 presentations, some of them in
three other schools in our community. But every presentation is again a new experience, because we
ask many questions to our listeners and we always get different answers. In April 2010 we were invited
to a Plant-for-the-Planet Academy at our school. The mayor gave the opening speech, we planted 4000
seedlings and trained 25 new Climate Justice Ambassadors.
Tree planting!
heard of us and will take us seriously – and you will have already been involved!
This is what your trees will be contributing to.
How count your trees
So, in order to keep track of how many trees we have already planted together, it
is both necessary and important that “your” trees are included in both the national
and international tally. Therefore, every planting-party needs to begin with a click
in the internet. On our homepage you can register your planting party. Once this
is done you can announce how many trees you want to plant – your tree pledge.
After your planting party, it is crucial that you then log back into the website and
record how many trees were finally planted.
There are children from many different cities who have already promised to plant
100,000 trees for their city. That is a gigantic number… but it is achievable, as
many of the comments and successes of planting-parties in Germany have shown.
Another important point to know, not every tree that is attributed to a specific
planting group needs to be personally planted by this group, or even to be planted
locally. The total number of trees planted includes all of the trees planted around
the world as a result of the groups actions. When a group also runs a fundraiser,
the money raised can be donated towards the planting of trees in other countries.
You can read more about this on the next page.
It’s simple! Join in!
www.plant-for-the-planet.org
Register your
trees!

* You can learn
more about how
to become a
Climate Justice
Ambassador in
the next chapter
on page 84!
* More about
the idea of
Benedikt on
page 80!
Trees for the South …
Or: 10 euros = 10 trees
For each Euro that is donated, one tree can be planted. But we don’t want to
plant just one tree, we want to plant as many as possible – a million trees in
every country on Earth!
When you want to organise a tree planting party it is often possible to find
sponsors who are willing to offer financial support. Maybe even your parents,
relatives or friends will be willing to help out too.
Once you’ve been officially trained as a Climate Justice Ambassador,* you
will be able to organise “official” fundraisers, and start collecting donations in
other places like a subway station or at public events. On our website we have
put together a list of the most important questions surrounding the theme of
fundraising and collecting donations.
Often we even found companies and organisations that would generously
support us in our campaign – serving as our official sponsors.
You can read more about how a good fundraising and sponsorship campaign
works at the end of this chapter. Our friend, Benedikt,* has a really fantastic
idea for this.
Karoline [14, Berlin, Germany]
The first time that I went with my
friends to start collecting donations as Climate
Justice Ambassadors, we did the following
things: during our break in the middle of the day
we headed out (in full gear with our Plant-forthe-Planet
t-shirts and flyers) and first went to
Friedrich Street in Berlin, because it is always full
of people. But then we realized that this wasn’t
such a good plan. Most people just simply passed
by and nodded
kindly. So we decided to go to the subway station
and tried collecting donations there. We got on
the subway train and just said: “Hello, we are
students from the Evangelical School of Central
Berlin and we are working together on a project
called Plant-for-the-Planet. We kids from Plantfor-the-Planet
are planting trees in order to save
the climate. A euro is equal to one tree, and it
would make us really happy if you gave us a small
donation. Every cent helps.
Now we come to the most important thing: we need
money, above all, in order to plant trees where it
makes the most impact – in southern countries.
It is much warmer there than it is in Europe. Therefore the trees grow faster and
help – through their ability to absorb CO2 – even faster against the climate crisis
than those trees in other parts of the world where trees grow more slowly.
Because of this, we have teamed up with partner organisations in Africa, South
and Central America and in Asia. These organisations plant trees for Plant-for-the-
Planet with the money that we collect. Every Euro donated is transformed by our
partners into a tree. Here are a few examples:
Namibia (Africa)
With the children in Namibia and our partner organisation
“Trees for the world” we have already planted over 40,000
trees! Aside from absorbing CO2, these trees have another
important function, they combat the expansion of deserts
in northern Namibia.
That went a lot better, because the people in the
subway couldn’t just ignore us and walk away. In
total we earned enough money for 26 trees!
We also do collection drives in city squares and at
public events (for example in the city-market and
in the botanical gardens). When we collect money,
we always bring our COURAGE cards along,
because a person can always use a little COURA-
GE. The COURAGE card is a kind of motto at our
A small number of
the 40,000 trees
in Namibia
74 75
school, and it
works sort of
like a receipt. On the back it says: “Courage to
dream.”, “For this COURAGEcard, one tree will be
planted.” Everybody who donates a euro receives
their own card in return.

Gregor at a
lanting-party
Ecuador (South America)
Gregor, who has been with Plant-for-the-Planet since the beginning and had done
his community service in Ecuador, worked with local Ecuadorians to plant over
28,000 trees. Together with the leader of the region and other local citizens,
Edwin Bustamante, an environmental engineer, reforested the forests of the
province of Pichincha. Overall, 13 different native species of trees were planted.
Through this reforestation project, the negative consequences of deforestation
(climate change, erosion, and the loss of biodiversity, etc …) will be slowed
down and eventually reversed.
Democratic
Republic of
Congo (Africa)
Costa Rica (Central America)
With our partner “BaumInvest” we have already planted 40,000 trees on fallow
ground. The unique diversity of teak trees and a variety of other local tree
species that have been planted there have above all, been hugely important for
the ecological diversity of the area and the resistance against tree pests. One of
the tree species they planted is the almond tree, whose fruit is used as food for
a rare parrot.
In addition, they reforested areas along local rivers. Incidentally, the seedlings
for the planting campaign were gathered directly from the site where they were
re-planted. And in some places the trees were even used as a natural replacement
for fences.
Malaysia (Asia)
76
In Malaysia we have more recently found a
new planting partner – the “SMK Teloi Kanan
School”. Of course that makes us incredibly
happy, because this group is primarily made
up of students who are working to plant
mangrove trees along their coasts. Mangrove
77
The Democratic Republic of Congo lies in one of
forests are the livelihood for many birds,
the largest tropical forest regions of the Earth. But
reptiles, mammals, fish, mussels, crabs, and
because an unbelievable amount of the forests in the
many other animals. Above all, mangrove
Congo had been cut down, there has been an
forests on the coast provide important protection against storm surges and
increasing number of completely bare patches of
tsunamis!
land on mountain slopes which are vulnerable to
We believe that these projects are all worthwhile to
erosion. Tree plantations and the “great
donate to!
atmosphere” there with the locals, who are
We from Plant-for-the-Planet guarantee (as well as a certified accountant) that
leading Plant-for-the-Planet’s efforts, are
a tree will be planted in one of these countries for every Euro donated. By
doing a lot to combat this problem.
the way, one Euro from the cost of this book, that you have in your hand right
now, will also be donated so that another tree can be planted too! Thanks!

How about “giving” a tree as a present? One of our friends gave 50 trees to
her grandma for her birthday one year, and she absolutely loved the gift! The
beautiful donation certificate now hangs in her living room. Or maybe you can
even ask somebody else to give you a gift of trees for your next birthday or for
Christmas.
In any case we have had the experience with our campaign that many people
react quite open-mindedly and are very happy when we request a small donation
to help us reach our goal.
Of course there will always be people who are skeptical or sometimes even react
Answer: You’re right! But the world has never before Answer: Every tree converts CO2 into oxygen, and
negatively. This is why we have collected together a list of arguments, which we
experienced such rapid climate change as today. we are always planting more. After our first million,
bump into now and again, so that we could come up with and share possible
This is because the CO2 levels in the atmosphere are more will follow, because WE children are planting
responses. Maybe they can also help you when you want to convince others to
rising faster than they ever have before. Consider trees all over the world together. We know that
join.
this for a moment: for many decades now we have trees can only be a part of the solution though, so
been digging more and more carbon up out of the we are always using our tree-planting campaigns
ground in the form of coal, petroleum, and crude oil as ways of bringing attention to the fact that we
and burned it – releasing more and more CO2 in the have to continue working closer together, if we
Good answers to Argument – I am already doing
air. This carbon required a very long time to be buried
underground, but today we are releasing it back into
want to solve other global problems, too.
dumb arguments! something to protect the climate.
I try to drive as little as possible.
our atmosphere almost in one go. So fast, in fact, that
we are releasing the same amount of CO2 that was
Argument – This is matter of
politics ... and if they’re not going
Answer 1: Great! But unfortunately not everybody
stored underground over the span of a million days to do anything, why should I?
Argument – But it’ll be nice when is pitching in. So those of us who do have to work
(2,738 years) within just a Answer: If many people are working together, then
it gets warmer!
harder.
single day! politicians will have to listen and help us too. You
Answer 1: Will it also be nice when the summers Answer 2: Do you fly? (Do you eat a lot of meat?
However,
can and should be one of the many who force the
are so hot that old people and children die from
heat stroke?
Answer 2: If global warming continues
78 at its current rate, then millions of
Do you separate your trash? Do you save energy?
etc) ... everybody can start with these small
things.
as we have already
said, our experience is that
many people really like what we are
politicians to get to work.
79
people will lose their homes – should
doing and are glad to donate money or
they all come and stay with you then?
time to help out.
Argument – I don’t care!
I don’t want to hear about it!
Answer 1: Do you care more about your own
comfort than about us children?
Answer 2: Do you think coastal flooding all over
the world and the complete disappearance of
glaciers (etc...) are NO problems whatsoever?!
Argument – But one
person can’t change it!
Answer 1: That’s not completely true! When
many, many people each do just a little bit, then
together they can achieve quite a lot. We might
not be able to stop climate change, but we can
certainly slow it down, if everybody does their part.
Answer 2: We, for example, are planting trees. A
single tree can clean 24,000 cubic meters of air
every day. And throughout its lifetime a tree can
remove up to 3 tons of dangerous carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere!
Argument – What? You’re
talking about 2050? By that time
I’ll already be long gone.
Answer 1: But those who WILL still be around,
we children for example, want an Earth that is still
inhabitable.
Answer 2: Don´t you have any children ... or
friends or relatives who have children?
Argument – Climate change?
That has always existed.
Argument – But I have already
planted trees!
It is also fantastic, of course, when an entire school class, a
club, or any other large group makes a donation * to help planting trees
in the South or sponsors a tree-planting campaign in their home town. This is
exactly what we mean when we say that everything is a lot easier and much
more fun when we work together!
People learn the best about what a large campaign should look like from those who
have done before. Considering this, we have gathered together the perspectives
of the members of the Environmental Working Group of the Immanuel Kant High
School in Tuttlingen, Germany. Here they explain how they came up with the idea of
organizing a “Run for Trees“. What these kids have put together is really remarkable!
Answer: That’s great, but please help us to plant
more! If you would like even more people to follow
your good example, then we have a great idea ...
(Tell them about the next tree-planting-party and
how they might be able to support it ...)
Argument – But a couple of trees
aren’t going to do anything.
* IMPORTANT! If
you send us a
donation, please
write your
school, the name
of your organization,
and the
city (so that we
can record your
tree contribution)!

“Run for Trees” – Benedikt’s brilliant
idea for the Environmental School
Working Group
Our Environmental WG was founded by Benedikt Hitzler in March 2008. He is a
school mentor for Nature and Environmental Protection and is the group’s leader.
The idea for the running event was born when Benedikt saw a Plant-for-the-Planet
flyer. The theme of global warming was on everybody’s mind and the politicians were
holding stressful discussions about protective measures against it.
Just talking! In our opinion, this was the biggest problem. Something had to be
done, clearly more than just talking. And the next question, which begged to be
asked was what can WE do about it? Right now? We found the answer in the flyer
from Plant-for-the-Planet about tree planting.
Tree planting? That seemed very practical to us. We discussed how and where
to begin. Should we lead a large reforestation campaign in our county? When
we Environmental WG’ers of the Immanuel Kant High School found out, during a
meeting with forest ranger Mr. Fink, that there was no land in the Tuttlingen area
for reforestation (they had even said that the forest was growing too much!), we
realised that good advice was scarce. However, research on the Plant-for-the-
Planet website helped a lot in this area.
the one already established to create a “Run for Trees“. In this way, many people
from the county could be enlightened about the problems of climate change
and the shrinking rainforests. Our goal was to give a new perspective to every
person who didn’t know how they could become active. Until that point everyone
in our group had similar experiences when we talked about the greenhouse gas
effect and the destruction of the world’s “green lungs”. People always responded
by saying: “Horrible, horrible, horrible ... but there’s nothing that any one of us
can do about it.”
Nothing? Wrong: we can run! All we had to do was find sponsors who would
donate a definite amount of money for every part of the marathon each participant
completed. This money could then be turned into trees – a con crete form
of environmental protection.
In the following weeks the Environmental WG promoted the event. We convinced
the school administration and also won the support of our mayor to help leading
the event. The main organiser from “Run for Fun” also helped us to identify and
solve problems before they grew too large to handle. We also made a film to
show our fellow students during the short break: this is how our idea of a “Run
for Trees” developed and grew.
With the enormous support from both the city and the school administration, it
was time to start looking for sponsors, a tricky task. The search continued well
We learned that the Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation takes donations so that trees
into the summer break. Often we received more questions than answers: How
can be planted in Ecuador, in Namibia (fighting against the expansion of the
will the catering work? Who is responsible for the flyers and posters? And when
deserts there) as well as in other locations. We liked that Plant-for-the-Planet has
will all the various threads come together? Benedikt was involved the entire way
80 a certified guarantee that a tree will be planted for every donted euro. Everyone
through, even helping out during his vacation on Corsica Island in the Mediterra-
81
in our Environmental WG was immediately excited, especially when we learned
that the trees would be planted where rainforests had been recently cut or
nean Sea by keeping in contact electronically”.
burned down – a mortal sin! The protection of the rainforests had, in fact, been
Immediately after the summer break we began the final phase – we encountered
one of our most important issues for a long time.
a number of problems still! There were difficulties with the printing of the posters.
The business that was making them for us was late, and at first the local press
We talked about how we could collect more donations. Should we host a basket-
wasn’t very interested in supporting our event. So, in addition to the regular
ball tournament and donate the entrance fees to the planting campaign? But we
weekly meetings of the Environmental WG – during the final phase about two
quickly realised that we wouldn’t be able to find enough students or adults who
weeks before the event – we held several extra meetings too. The first of these
would be interested to attend and participate. Finally, Benedikt had a brilliant idea:
special meetings (three weeks before the race) was an emergency meeting. Up
a Run for Trees! Most good ideas would never have taken shape without the help
to that point there were only 20 applications to participate although the regis-
of a great role model. The same was true here. In Tuttlingen we already have an
tration period had been over for 14 days. At that meeting in the offices of the
annual “Run for Fun”. It was obvious that we could combine this great idea with
company Hitzler Solar (they provided us with a couple of rooms and equipment
to prepare)

we decided to arrange all the ideas, problems, and suggestions that we had on
sticky notes and grouped them by category. At the end we sorted them all by
their level of urgency, set up due dates and clear responsibilities for getting each
thing done. Who can make sure that all of the posters are hung up by a certain
date? Who is the responsible coordinator for the participating advertisers? Who
can make sure that all of the schools in the area will be notified about the race?
The emergency meeting was a big turning point for us, probably the ultimate
jump forward in our progress. It lead to more clarity and to a checklist which told
everyone when certain things needed to be done. Because of that checklist, we
weren’t wasting any more enthusiasm or manpower because nobody knew what
was supposed to be taken care of.
Meanwhile, the search for sponsors had been quite successful. Of course, each
city will have different opportunities available, but for those who want to plan a
similar race in their hometown, we think that a good starting point in their search
for sponsors could be the list of our supporters: several local and regional companies,
local political organisations, the public utilities, the city itself, two banks, a
radio broadcasting station, and an environmental organisation. Thanks to generous
donations of material, like the racing numbers, advertising banners, as well as
drinks, we were able to keep our costs very low.
only very few people in the region would have completely missed hearing about
our event.
As mentioned, our short advertising film that we presented during school breaks
and during the Parent-Teacher Evening created a very good response. And our
conversations with parents also added extra motivation – for them and for us.
Articles for our “Run for Trees” appeared regularly in two regional newspapers,
and advertisements on the radio and the creation of an informative website all
enormously increased awareness about our event. In short, the avalanche came
rolling, long after it had looked like it wouldn’t come at all.
But it wasn’t all easy, and we shouldn’t ignore our failures. It turned out to be
extraordinarily difficult to win the support of local celebrities (such as politicians).
Indeed most of the cancellations that we received were because people had
already booked or over-booked their calendars. But even without “prominent”
volunteers, more than a thousand runners showed up at the starting line – supported
by over 60 volunteer event-organisers. In the end, we were able to donate
over 7,654 euros to Plant-for-the-Planet – backed by 1,800 volunteer-hours and
a great experience for everyone.
After the emergency meeting things began to go much more smoothly regarding
to advertisement and mobilisation. Since our main target group was the local
students, we made sure to systematically visit the different schools in the region
Students with no experience in organising large events can see now what is truly
around Tuttlingen. We informed the teachers about our visit in advance, showed
possible when someone is excited about a big idea and works hard to turn it into
our small advertisement film and distributed flyers in the classes. We even
a reality.
82 had the opportunity to make a few brief announcements and host information
83
discussions in the classes we visited.
Today there are 7,654 more trees growing in Namibia than there would have
been without this planting campaign. In 2009, Benedikt’s Environmental WG
In order to reach the adults, we focused our advertising campaign on the Tuttlinger
organized another race and this time earned 8,000 Euros which resulted in
market. On a Sunday we were allowed to show our information film on a large
public TV screen. This proved to be very useful, because when the people stopped
another 8,000 trees being planted in Malaysia.
for watching it was easier getting in contact to them, providing flyers to them and
Moritz (9 years-old) and Alina (10 years-old) have also organised their own
(very important!) informing them about our event in person. Many business people
“Run4Trees”with the help of their parents. The students had made a promise
allowed us to leave flyers in their offices too. And we were allowed to announce
to plant 100,000 trees for their community, and both put this effort into its
our event on the side of a bus that drove back and forth throughout the city. In a
advertisement. During their “Run4Trees” event they did not only introduce many
place where practically everybody sees or travels by bus, our banners covered
people to Plant-for-the-Planet, but they also collected a lot of donations toward
the streets. Also, about 200 posters were put up around the county by the
their goal. Next year they will also organise another race, in order to collect
advertising company we had worked with, 82 of them on street lamps. In short,
donations to plant their “own” trees in southern countries.

Everyone can do
it, including you:
talk with as many
people as possible
about the climate
crisis and about
what we can do
against it!
* When possible,
we also extend
the training over
multiple days.
Our planet needs Climate
Justice Ambassadors and
Future Lobbyists...
Or: The Plant-for-the-Planet
Academies
So that we children can stand up for our future, we naturally need as many
people as possible who are able to support us. We already have a large group
standing with us, but there should be more, many more! We need to find these
people and convince them that we can do something together to protect the
climate and for climate justice around the world.
In order to spread this important message we need Ambassadors. More
specifically: Climate Justice Ambassadors. We children and young people are the
perfect people to do it!
If you have read everything in this book so far, then you have already learned
quite a bit about what you need to do to convince others. Of course, it is helpful
when you get help and learn from adults, but it’s always better when we children
can help and support each other.
In spring 2008, we established a way of “empowering” Climate Justice Ambassadors.
Usually over the course of one day* – we will hold an “Academy” in
which we kids learn about the climate crisis, primarily from each another.
Lea and Mira [13 & 11, Erlangen, Germany]
In January last year we read in our
local newspaper, the Erlanger News,
that a climate academy was going to
be held in the Environmental Station of
Lias Grube in Eggolsheim, Germany.
In our family we talk a lot about the
climate crisis and our father is also involved in the
field. so we immediately thought that this was the
thing for us. Although it was a terribly cold weekend
and it rained in torrents, the event was really
great! All together we planted 130 trees.
We also thought it was really cool that Felix, his
sisters, and his father were there, too. Even
a TV crew from a popular German kids show
came along and a short report about our event
was given on the radio in the state of Bavaria,
Germany. A year later at the end of February
2010, we and our friend Elisabeth gave the opening
speech at the Academy in Stuttgart, Germany.
That was fantastic! We are also planning an
Academy in our hometown of Erlangen so that
more kids from our area can become Climate
Justice Ambassadors, too.
As we write this book we have already completed all of the training to become
Climate Justice Ambassadors. Not only did we learn a lot, we also had lots of
fun while doing so!
By the way, the former Federal Minister for the Environment, Sigmar Gabriel, and
Professor Dr. Klaus Töpfer have accepted our invitation to act as public supporters
of the Plant-for-the-Planet Initiative and for our Academies.
In this chapter we want to describe to you how
an Academy works and what kind of interesting
things you can learn there.
We have gathered together the perspectives of many different children who have
attended an Academy, and we have also added more background information to
provide context to their viewpoints.
Of course it would be great, if you could join an Academy in your area. You can
see up-to-date announcements for future Academies on our website:
http://plant-for-the-planet.org/take-action/academies
Maybe you would even like to establish an Academy on
your own, for example at your school. If you want to do
this we’ll be glad to help you! Just get in contact with us.*
* On our website
we offer
a large amount
of helpful
“material” for
Academies that
you could use
at any time.
84 85
Plant-for-the-Planet
Academy with Zulus
in Thousand Hills,
South Africa

If you (still …) can’t or don’t want to join in at an Academy, then you can still
learn a lot about them in this chapter!
Our Academies always run according to a specific pattern with which we have
had our best experiences. The training to become a Climate Justice Ambassador,
therefore, consists of various “building blocks” – we call them “modules”.
What’s really important is that at the Academies we kids learn from one another.
Therefore, it is also always necessary to have at least a single “pre-trained”
Climate Justice Ambassador there (adults can of course also provide support,
by helping to lead the event).
Module 1: Introduction
Or: Hearing and discussing a
Climate Justice Ambassador’s
speech
“When the Academy started and I saw all the other children for the first time, I was pretty nervous,
because I knew nobody aside from my friend Momo, … but then we played a fun little ‘get to
know you’ game. Momo’s teacher (she led the game) gave us a giant ball of wool string and told
us to throw it in a big circle around at each other (while we keep the unwound thread in our hand).
Whenever we threw the ball to somebody, we were supposed to ask them a simple question. This
helped to break the ice – and by the end we made a really cool net of threads in the middle of our
circle.”
Thirdly, the subject of the lecture is incredibly interesting … it’s about our own
future!
If you have read the chapter, “What does climate change mean?” then you already
know quite a lot. In any case, it is worth looking back at the material again
and maybe you will still learn something new. Of course the better you know the
facts, the easier it is to convince others to get involved.
Following the lecture we discuss people’s questions and the course content
more extensively. Usually we do this in smaller groups because the conversations
can be more detailed and in depth. In the end we come back together into
one big group and talk about what we learned.
Here is an example of a question and how we answered it: after the lecture, that
Mira and Lea from Erlangen gave in Stuttgart, an audience member (and future
Ambassador) said that although the glaciers were melting very quickly overall,
there were also places in the Antarctic where they were getting thicker. Can this
be true?
After one or two icebreaker games, one (or more) of the already trained Climate
Justice Ambassadors gives a lecture that last about 45 minutes. The word
“lecture” probably sounds a little boring, but it isn’t at all!
Firstly, we children find it a lot easier to listen to each other than to adults (even
if many adults don’t like to hear that … ) so we kids stay focused during the
* Academy lectures, even though there is a lot of information packed into them.
Secondly, there is also a really great PowerPoint presentation that goes along
with the lecture (also designed by children and teenagers)* . This illustrates the
Ambassador’s message really well.
PowerPoint is a
86 We investigated the question and found that it is true.
Although the ice sheets on Antarctica are already
87
beginning to melt away, there are areas on the icy
continent where the glacier thickness is growing. One
can say that it is increasing against the trend. Why?
Because when the pack ice belt (the ice floating on
the sea around Antarctica) melts during the southern
summer, there is a much higher amount of water
computer program,
which you can use
vapour in the air. If this moisture over the sea is driven
toward the land by strong winds, then it will snow
to show pictures
and graphics
during a lecture.
heavily in these areas – and because of the freezing
snow, the ice will get thicker.

Questions like these are obviously very in-depth, and no one can be expected to
keep all of the intricate details in their head. However we always try to answer
every question as thoroughly and clearly as possible.
Module 2: Climate Crisis
Or: Discussing the topic of climate
justice
“When we came back from a short break, there were different sized “spots” of paper lying
on the floor waiting for us. We took a closer look at them and saw that on these spots
(which were also differently shaped) were small cards with the names of different continents:
Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Antarctica, Australia … I was really
interested about what we were going to do next! Then Mr. Hoffman, the game leader, put a
chocolate bar and a balloon into each of our hands, which made me even more excited. What
we learned from these ‘ingredients’ was how unfair prosperity and energy consumption levels
are on Earth. In the end I was standing with a whole bunch of us kids on a continent and we
had very little chocolate, while on other continents (especially in Europe and North America)
there were much fewer kids, but they had many more chocolate bars than we did! It got even
worse when we realized which continents (and their associated countries) produce the most
CO2 – that was just unbelievable! Obviously, that got us talking about what we could do to
change the unfairness that we saw.”
Module 3: Rhetoric & Style
Or: Learning how to give short
lectures
“My Friend Sebastian, who has been a Climate Justice Ambassador for a long time now (who persuaded
me to attend an Academy), at first explained how a person should not give a speech: by staring at a
sheet of paper and reading off a few lines in a small low voice, he looked only at his notes or at the
ground, and he stood there kind of awkwardly … it was definitely not a very good speech because
nothing of what he was trying to say was clear or convincing. Anyway, his first speech was so bad that
we all started laughing – but it wasn’t mean or anything because Sebastian was trying to do it extra
badly.
We then practiced how to improve each other’s public speaking skills without hurting the other person.
When it was my turn to give a speech in my group, I was honestly pretty nervous … but then it was really
great to experience how quickly you can improve with a couple of little tricks and tips while talking! Two
weeks later, I gave my first official climate lecture in our school - and it was really fun!”
Rhetoric is a word from ancient Greek and it means “oratory.” Rhetoric answers
the question: how and with what attitude should I talk in order to convince
others? It is said that this art form developed over two and a half thousand years
ago in the public squares of ancient Greece, where the speakers attempted to
attract crowds for their topic and convince them of their viewpoint.
In the second module we play a game called the “World Game”. During this
Certainly, each of us has experienced that it is sometimes not easy at all to
88 game we learn about fairness, both in terms of prosperity and in terms of
convey what we know to others. And we all want to get across to others what we
89
climate justice. It is only when we have it clearly illustrated before our own eyes
know, so that it is well understood. The path from the head through the mouth
that we can truly understand how unfair the current world structure is. For the
into the ear and into the brain of the listener is often not as simple as one would
game: A small part of the world population has the most candies, symbolising
their richness. In order to become so rich, these small parts of the world
like it to be.
used the poorer countries resources (oil, gas, metals, etc…) and
This can be true for many reasons.
by using them created the vast majority of the world’s
For example, sometimes it is easy
CO2 emissions which in turn fuels global warming.
to become too excited, muddled,
However it’s generally not those who caused global
to mix up the important with the
warming, who are faced with its most severe
non-important aspects of a topic, to
consequences … it’s the countries that have the
lose the thread of a speech, or to be
least candies of all - the poor countries!
intimidated by an audience – although
most don’t mean to be intimidating.

At some schools, though, students practice the ability to speak freely in front of
the class. But even then it is no small matter.
As Climate Justice Ambassadors we often speak in front of groups of people,
both large and small. Explaining and educating is our specialty, so it is especially
important to practice giving public speeches. This is why our Academies offer
a lesson in rhetoric. Also, the best practice comes from working together in a
group:
1. Remember to speak loudly and clearly – try not to mumble! And try to keep
your speed within normal ranges, not too fast or too slow.
„Es war spannend und lustig zuzuschauen und mitzumachen: Manche von uns hatten nämlich
noch nie mit Erde zu tun und sind ein bisschen zimperlich an die Sache rangegangen. Der
Förster musste ziemlich grinsen und hat nur gesagt: ‚Das ist Erde – kein Gift!‘ Manchmal
musste er ein paar Bäumchen retten, mit denen wir es zu gut gemeint hatten: Die Winzlinge
schauten gerade noch mit der obersten Triebspitze aus der Erde raus … Halbschatten ist
übrigens besonders gut für Baumzwerge, haben wir dabei gelernt, pralle Sonne dagegen
finden sie ätzend.“
2. It is good if you can use words and terms that are particularly important
Our Academies are usually held in autumn or in spring, the perfect seasons for
and memorable. Here is a small example from our climate lecture: “What is
planting trees. Of course, during an Academy´s day we can’t
Plant-for-the-Planet? Very simple – a children´s initiative which plants
hold any large planting-parties, but if it’s pos-
trees for climate justice. In 2007, the then 9-year-old Felix Finkbeiner gave a
sible, we go outside and plant a couple trees
presentation in his school about the climate crisis …”
3. Every now and then look at people in the audience and search for eye
under the guidance of an expert – preferably
with a forest ranger.
Alina: rhetorical
contact! It will also give you a chance to notice when someone does not seem
Otherwise we pot seedlings, very young plants
skills!
1. to Ganz understand bewusst what daran you’re denken, saying. laut und deutlich zu reden – sprich:
which can then be planted later. Of course, we
möglichst nicht nuscheln! Und weder zu schnell noch zu langsam
can and will plant more seedlings on our own
4. Make reden sure … that you are standing up straight and on both legs (no joke, it
in the future, but it is important that we learn
totally helps!)
how to do it properly first, before we try to do
2. Es ist sehr gut, wenn ihr Worte und Begriffe, die euch wichtig sind,
5. When besonders several betont; people hier are ein giving kleines a presentation Beispiel aus together, unserem don’t Klimavor- fool around
everything ourselves.
when trag: it’s „Was another ist Plant-for-the-Planet? person’s turn! Ganz einfach gesagt: eine
This is crucial so that we are prepared to then
90 Schülerinitiative, die Bäume für Klimagerechtigkeit pflanzt. Im
lead the largest planting parties possible after
91
Jahr 2007 hielt der damals 9-jährige Felix Finkbeiner ein Schulreferat
über die Klimakrise …“
the Academy is finished!
3. Zwischendrin immer mal wieder die Leute im Publikum anschauen!
Dann merkt ihr auch, wenn jemand etwas nicht versteht.
4. Darauf achten, dass ihr möglichst gut auf beiden Beinen steht
(kein Witz, das hilft total!).
5. Wenn mehrere zusammen einen Vortrag machen, keinen Quatsch
machen, während die anderen dran sind!
Module 4: Planting
Or: We plant and prepare new
planting actions
“It was exciting and fun to watch and participate. Some of us had never worked with the soil before
and were a bit squeamish about doing it for the first time. The forest ranger just gave us a grin
and said: ‘It’s dirt – not poison!’ Every once in a while he had to save a few trees from our too-good
intentions. The dwarfs barely poked up out of the ground … we learned that shade is particularly
good for dwarfs but that direct sun can be very harmful to them.”

Module 5: World Café
Or: We collect ideas how others can
be involved
“After we had reasonably clean hands again, we went back inside, split into different groups and sat at
four separate tables. The topic at our World Café table was: ‘How do we achieve the goal of getting
the media to report on our activities ?‘ Because my mother is in the City Council, I found the discussion
really interesting … Together we wrote down all of our ideas on a poster. After a little while, all of
the groups rotated and sat down at a new table and looked at the topic on the poster to see what
the other kids had written. The poster on the next table said, ‘How can we motivate adults (teacher,
parents, grandparents, etc.) ?’ There were quite a few good ideas already written down, and we added
a few more of our own. We rotated two more times and at the other tables were posters that read
‘How do we organise a planting-party ?’ and ‘How do we inspire friends and other students ?’ It was
really amazing how many great ideas we came up with there!”
The World Café gives us the
opportunity to work on different questions in small groups one after
the other. On each poster all ideas, which have already been collected from
other children so far, can be continued and can be supplemented with your own
ideas.
Module 6: Work in school
groups
Or: We take action!
“There were five of us from our school and together we thought about how we wanted
to get involved with Plant-for-the-Planet in the future. During the World Café we had
already collected a lot of ideas. Because of this it was really easy for us to plan
campaigns for our school. Sarah took over the organisation of a Plant-for-the-Planet
info booth at our school party just before summer holidays. Afterwards, Lisa wanted to
write an article about the school party, for which she wanted to take a „Stop Talking.
Start Planting“ picture with her aunt who is in the municipal council. Antonia could not
wait until the school party. She decided to give a speech about Plant-for-the-Planet
and the Academy the following week. After all, the other children at our school should
also be informed about the climate crisis too. Leon and Niklas enjoyed planting trees
so much that they took over the organisation of another planting party. Leon became
the person in charge of the organisation of plants and tools. Niklas registered on the
homepage and took care of the invitations for children and adults ”
Module
7: Our first lecture ...
Or: We present our aims to adults
The culmination of the Academy is yet to come: at the end of the Academy we
always invite as many adults as possible (parents, teachers but also sometimes
the mayor), to whom the new Climate Justice Ambassadors can present
everything they have learned during the Academy.
The extensive collection of our ideas from the World Café will then
This not only makes us
proud of ourselves but we
also experience together
how it feels to take respon-
92 be used as the basis for our following work and action in school
sibility for our own goals in
93
groups. Here, all children from one school assemble together
front of adults. By the way: it
around one poster to work out specific projects: how do we want
is quite a great experience if
to get involved with Plant-for-the-Planet at our school? In order to
one can explain something to adults
make an effective plan of action we write down exactly „What“ we plan, „Who“ of
that they themselves didn’t know so
us children will carry out which job at our school and „by what time“ we want to
have achieved our goals. At the end we write down all our goals, promises, and
plans on large posters. Our school posters
are not only intended as a reminder
for us children but also point out to the
adults that we take our commitment to
climate justice very seriously.
much about before.
“I already had stage fright when we were about to give our first presentation
in front of adults, particularly because so many of our teachers were there.
But at the same time I wanted to share the exciting things we’re doing with
the whole world… After this evening at the Academy we went back to our
school with big new goals in sight.”

Of course we also show the adults what we
intend to do and what we have recorded
on our school posters. We ask them to
support us with the implementation of our
plans.
In the end, each participant receives a
certificate which decorates him or her
officially as an educated Climate Justice
Ambassador. With this certificate we
promise to be involved with Plant-for-the-Planet
once a month (as discribed on page 92 , starting with the easiest project and
ending with for example: rural district
How Natalia from Poland became
involved
1,000 trees).
In addition to the certificate and our
We first heard about Plant-for-the-Planet during a meeting of our
Ecology Club at school in 2008. Two students, Zaneta and Sofja, had
At the UNEP
Children
Conference in
Plant-for-the-Planet t-shirt, all brand new
just come back from representing Poland at the UNEP Children and South Corea
Ambassadors receive a bag with many
Youth Conference in Norway. There were a lot of kids there, around 2009 after
materials. Joining in is great fun and we
children can get further involved within
our families and in our schools! One
can be sure: if you participate in one
Academy you will be ready to take on
700, from over 105 countries! Zaneta and Sofja told us about a
German boy in short lederhosen (leather overalls) and how he said
that he wanted to plant lots of trees in his country. We didn’t know
it at the time, but this was Felix. He was elected to the UNEP Children
Board and the girls remembered him well – because, despite being the
Felix´s sentence:
„Everybody who
wants to plant a
million trees in
their country,
come up on the
anything after that.
Since Plant-for-the-Planet
smallest and the youngest of all of them, he always seemed to have
something important to say and he was very convincing when he spoke.
stage.“
was established, more than
One year later my friend Milena and I travelled to the UNEP Children and
14,000 Climate Justice
Youth Conference in South Korea, where we saw a presentation by Felix.
94 Ambassadors have been empowered in 211 Academies.
When I heard him say at the end of his speech, “Everybody who is going
95
With our Academy concept we gained experience in 23
to plant a million trees in their country, come up on stage!” I thought at
countries and we know: it works. That´s why we now want
first: I absolutely want to plant a million trees in my country … but is this
to implement our Academies in all countries. Therefore,
even possible? Then I saw how many other children were joining Felix on
we will open offices in ten new countries year by year.
the stage, and I thought to myself: we kids can do it together! In Poland
there are certainly quite a lot of kids at my age who will join in and help
tackle this goal, so I stood up out of my chair and headed to the stage
too.
All Ambassadors and Future
Lobbyists receive a “Tree-
Shirt”. That’s a t-shirt made
from Tencel-wood-fibre, which
is biologically harvested by
Austrian firm, Lenzing, and
then woven into a t-shirt in
Germany.
Academy for Future Lobbyists: Here you will
learn how you can prepare yourself for negotiations,
how to lead them, and how to react to
objections. You will learn that negotiations begin
with “no”. Young people, who have already led
successful negotiations with the powers that be
will share their experiences with you.
Since then we have already achieved an unbelievable amount and I am
even more convinced that we are eventually going to reach our ultimate
goal.
Natalia

“Had the 10,000 delegates at the World Climate Summit in
Copenhagen planted trees the entire week,
more probably would have come out of it.”
Felix (12), Climate Justice
Ambassador from Paehl, Germany
“Adults say: “Children are the future” – but if we
don´t have any future, what remains to us?”
Alec Loorz (15), initiator of the
iMatter March from California, USA
“For most adults future seems to mean 20, 30 or even 40
years. But for us children 2100 is still in our lifetime. For
adults it´s an academic question if the sea level will rise for
1, 2 or 3 cm or 7 meters until the end of this century. But
for many of us children it is a question of survival.”
Paulina (15), Climate Justice
Ambassador from Cancun, Mexico
“Just talking does not stop the glaciers
from melting and the rainforests from
disappearing.”
Yugratna (13), Climate
Justice Ambassador from
Aliganj Lucknow, India
“We will manage it, the Egyptians are
also managing it!“
Theo (10), on January 31st
2011, the 7th day of the
Egyptian Revolution
after a speech of Felix
at a school in New York
“What the adults do today, we have to pay for tomorrow.
Therefore, we take the initiative now.
For Climate Justice.”
Maiken (14), Climate Justice
Ambassador from Gaborone, Botsuana
We are the children
of the world ...
Or: our global
planting-community 98
We children are the global
citizens and world politicians ...
Or: thinking and acting as
global citizens 104
What would we children do?
Or: our 3-Point-Plan to save
our future 109
We are Future Lobbyists...
Or: how we are fighting for
our future 112
“We won’t be able to call adults to account since
they will be dead when we have to solve the
problems that they haven´t worked out.“
Felix (14)
Our vision
4.

We are the children
of the world
Or: our global planting-community
Plant-for-the-Planet began as a seedling in Germany in 2007 and ever since then
it has been spreading and growing all over the world. It was at that moment
when Felix called all of the children up on stage in South Korea in 2009 to begin
planting a million trees in each country, that we truly became a global movement.
Information about activities in other countries can be seen on our website. Here,
the international Planting Groups can up load their new planting campaigns and
events and in doing so, share them with the rest of the world. In the process
not only do worldwide campaigns arise but friendships can also be formed. It is
great if one Climate Justice Ambassador in Duisburg can (for example) see via
the internet pictures of tree rows in Africa which were planted from children in
the Plant-for-the-Planet network.
The tasks that face us as Climate Justice Ambassadors around the world are
basically the same, even if there are differences in detail, of course. Basically it
is our job, from A in Argentina to Z in Zimbabwe, to plant trees, enlighten others,
and spread awareness. We already have kids active in over 100 countries and
there are also numerous planting groups and reports from their activities on our
website.
Argentina
On the 21th of September, Vanina hosted her own planting
party in her local district. “We planted tree species that
are native to the Patagonian region: Antarctic Beeches,
Coihues, and Barberries. All of them from our very own tree
nursery! On 10 October, the Daom Club in Buenos Aires
organized a tree-planting party. Nearly a hundred children
and several adults worked together to plant 50 trees in an area
with little vegetation. Even better, the T-shirts just arrived too!”
Azerbaijan
Rufat travelled to Baku in November. There he hosted the
first Youth Forum of Azerbaijan, supported by the Ministry of
Education. Rufat has been ensured that the Plant-for-the-Planet
campaign will be placed at the top of the agenda. In Azerbaijan
the children also want to organise an Academy to train Climate
Justice Ambassadors. They want to come together and build a
network of kids from multiple nations.
Bolivia
“We just joined in with Plant-for-the-Planet. Thank goodness that this isn’t the very
beginning for us though; our own tree-planting campaign is already 17 years-old.
The forest we planted in the arid highlands has grown to nearly 70,000 trees. And
during the next planting season we will be adding 7,000 more …”
China
China plants the most trees in the world. China’s Minister of Forestry, JiaZhibang
and the Chinese superstar, Wei Wei are big supporters of our campaign
98 The feedback and reports from Plant-for-the-Planet groups from around the world
“Stop Talking. Start Planting.” China’s first Academy for climate justice was
99
are already so numerous, that we can only include a small portion of them in this
hosted in November, 2009. 70 students from the top school in the large city of
book. You can find more photos and stories from the countries that are already
Guilin with over 5 million inhabitants were enthusiastic about the idea of build-
engaged, on their respective Plant-for-the-
ing a world-wide network together and they planted their first 26 trees in their
Planet pages on the internet.
schoolyard with Felix and the singer Wei Wei. Just with their first tree-planting
party, the children found themselves on the
cover of several newspapers and on TV, too!
In January 2012, the second Academy already
took place in Guilin.

Canada
“We have already planted 500 trees in Montreal, giving special attention
Mexico
to threatened tree species. Nevertheless, I think that we need more
After a speech
trees in Montreal because there are too many cars here and not enough
by Felix in Playa
greenery. Anything to make my city greener is worth the effort. By
del Carmen in
the way, most kids in Canada between the ages of 13 and 14 years
Mexico in March
old spend a summer in remote areas specifically for the purpose of
2010, a strong
planting trees. I myself have planted a thousand trees and this year we’re going to
movement has
plant even more!”
been developing
in Mexico. In the federal state of Quintana Roo alone, seven Local Initiatives have
Egypt
been founded which have been very active in planting trees and organising Acad-
“We have just received confirmation from the Governor of the State of Alexandria
emies. Within 4 months the children of the Local Initiatives in Mexico have planted
that we can plant over 200 trees throughout the city in 14 days!”
more than 50,000 trees, several Academies have been arranged and their activities
have been reported in more than 50 media stories. And this is just the beginning!
Hungary
Based in Quintana Roo the children plan to empower and also motivate at least
“Our climate club will coordinate the Plant-for-the-Planet activi-
2,000 new Climate Justice Ambassadors in 30 Academies all over Mexico each
ties. The club has over 11,000 members and our goal is to
plant a ‘climate forest’ in which every member can have a tree
year to get involved with Plant-for-the-Planet.
of his or her own. We have already invited many students and
Kenya
reporters to join in…”
In July 2011, more than 1,400 children were
empowered in Kenya. The first Academy took place
India
in one of the worst slums of Nairobi, in Kayole
“We are planting in five local districts. But we are not
Soweto. Despite the difficult conditions the children
just planting, we are also working and informing other
listened intently and gave great input after the pre-
students in the participating schools about the climate threat. We are specifically
working right now on organizing a ‘Fast-Planting Program’ for scouting
troops, taking care to focus on those trees adapted to dry, rural India…
especially the summer lilac, for areas that are prone to erosion…”
sentation. Although the Kayole Community Centre
was filled to the bursting point, all the participants
were very quiet and concentrated very well during
the event.
100 Senegal
101
“We planted eucalyptus trees in Birkama last year so that we would have more
Lesotho
shade around the sports field. The trees have already grown more than two
500 children participated in the first Academy in
meters in a single year! Our partner school in Berlin helped support us. Begin-
one of the world´s poorest countries. It was a real highlight. The Lesotho Minister
ning in December we will receive a donation from the
of Forestry began his speech by saying that he had now recognised his mistake
Berliners with which we can plant even more trees.“
of always relying purely on adults. From
this day forth he promised to correct this
Benin
and to start trusting in children. In addition
More than 84 schools in Benin have become active
he promised the children from all districts
participants. “For every month of 2010, we will plant
of Lesotho, that they could now have free
5,000 trees.” At this rate by 2017 around 100 million
seedling from all the state nurseries. The
new trees should be planted across all of the regions of
Queen of Lesotho said that it was a great
Benin!
honour that Lesotho now can be part of the
world wide network of Plant-for-the-Planet.

Cameroon
Uganda
The youth from Little Angels of the Environment had promised
“The Diocese on the ground where our
to plant trees for climate justice in their home country of
Cameroon. And a promise is a promise: 50 children began
planting their first trees on the beach in Kribi. Many adults also
helped out, even Cameroon’s Minister for the Environment,
school is, owns an empty area in our
neighbourhood where we would be allowed
to plant 14,000 more trees. It would be
who encouraged the kids to share their knowledge and their
great if we could create a partnership with
passion with their schoolmates and with their families.
a German school so that we can turn this
dream into a reality…“
Nepal
“Even if our trees and seedlings are small today - in 10 years everyone will
be able to benefit from them. We are overwhelmed with the enthusiasm and
Zambia
commitment of the children,” like Raja. The trees will not only absorb carbon
“In Zambia the planting campaign is already underway. Lucky and many oth-
dioxide emissions from the air, they will also minimize the damaging effects of
ers – at least 40 people now (we know this because we didn’t have enough
soil erosion and flooding.
T-shirts for everyone) – want to plant as many trees as they possibly can. Our
goal: a million. Now they even want to print their own T-shirts just so every-
Colombia
“In Colombia we kids from Plant-for-the-Planet want to start with the city of
body can have one!”
Minca, as well as another town in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada.” The
The countries mentioned so far are just a few in which Plant-for-the-Planet
students already know quite a bit about climate change, what the trees mean for
campaigns have either taken place or are being planned. There are also events
the protection of the climate and about the importance of the rainforests. “The
happening in Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Belize, Bosnia and Herze-
trees should be nurtured and protected in our nursery and then during the next
govina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Burundi, Colombia, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Czech Republic,
rainy season in June and July they will be planted. Aside from these plans, we
Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Fiji,
are currently searching for a partner school from Germany. Who’s interested?”
France, Gambia, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, Indonesia, Irak, Israel, Italy, Ivory
asks Lydia.
Coast, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique,
Ghana
Myanmar, Namibia, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Paraguay, Peru,
“When we arrived in Ghana and stepped off our ship, we got a planting party
Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Samoa, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia,
up on its own feet and planted 240 new trees. That way we could inspire even
Spain, Sri Lanka, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, St. Lucia, Suriname, Swaziland,
102 more people and organisations to become active with Plant-for-the-Planet” writes
Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, UK/Bermuda 103
Edeltraud.
Islands, UK/Wales, Ukraine, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zimbabwe …
Lebanon
“Each year we are organising a planting
campaign in Bekaa Valley to fight against
the deforestation. This year we have
planted 5,000 conifers on the Kab-Elias
Mountain where it burned last summer.
Until now we have planted over 30,000
conifers in the region of Bekaa Valley since
2006“ says Nour, 12 years old.
And this is just the beginning!

we would probably never do our homework and instead choose to just play video
games. Adults are undoubtedly a bit like big kids. This is why we Climate Justice
Ambassadors are convinced that we absolutely need global laws and regulations In 1992 the
Or: thinking and acting
as global citizens
to govern our actions.
In the chapter “What Everyone Can Do” you read that every one of us should
drive our cars less, fly less, always use a lid when cooking, replace all of our
first UN-Summit
was about
sustainability.
Then, in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil,
for the first
traditional light bulbs with energy saving ones, eat less meat, change electricity time a child
Every tree that we plant with our own hands and every Euro that we turn into a
tree in a country in the southern hemisphere is a real and important contribution
providers, etc… These are all voluntary measures. But how many people have
already done them? Five, six, seven percent? Over 90% of people haven’t made
was giving a
speech: Severn
Suzuki (13).
in the fight against the climate crisis. We look forward to seeing every single tree
any changes yet. Many people still live under the motto: “Why should I do some- Unfortunately
on this world not cleared away, but planted!
thing for the next generation? Whatever I do now isn’t going to change anything.”
it is as true
today as it was
back than. Her
However we are not naïve
Take the example of the car. When we kids were born, German car manufacturers
promised to stop producing cars that released more than 120 grams of
speech could be
repeated word by
word at Rio+20.
We do not believe that we can save the entire world just by planting trees. If we
CO2 per kilometre. Well, they broke that promise and now more and more It is sad that 20
want to be able to see a positive future ahead of us, then we need to do more.
A lot more.
fuel-guzzling SUVs are crowding our streets than ever before. During the last
UNEP Children and Youth Conference we talked with a bunch of kids from other
years later we
haven‘t found a
more sustainable
countries and found out that in Germany the tax on a SUV is much lower than lifestyle. But it
Sustainable Development*
Sustainable Development is “development that meets the
needs of the present generation without compromising
for example, in France, Britain, or Norway. In Germany many off-road vehicles
are taxed as if they were business cars. So, whoever drives a big car, receives
even bigger benefits from the state. We only need to look at our streets to see
the results of these rules – or rather the result of the absence of rules. Here in
is positive that
we children and
youth are much
better connected
today than 20
years ago.
the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Germany, hundreds of thousands of people drive off-road vehicles yet in other Severn‘s video
We kids define sustainability like this: “Living today should
countries with smarter taxes the number is much lower.
has been watched
20 million times
not come at the cost of tomorrow, and not at the cost of
in the past 20
104
someone living somewhere else either.”
We can also look at air traffic. Just like with cars, the regulation of air traffic fails
to take CO2 emissions into account. The aviation fuel for international flights is
years, today
we can
reach and 105
tax-free around the world. In 2005 the finance ministers of the EU were going to mobilize 20
During the last meeting for Climate Justice Ambassadors, a kid told us about
a report he had seen on an experiment done with animals: if you let a monkey
introduce a Europe-wide tax on aviation fuel, but the tourism industry was against
it. Great – so now everyone can fly cheaply around the world. Eventually this is
million people
in two days.
For us children
choose to have one banana now or six bananas later, the monkey will always
take the one banana now.
going to be expensive for us children though. Not only do people think that they
should always fly to their destination – they also transport useless goods around
sustainability is
the only concept
of survival and
the globe in planes just because it’s cheap. Much too cheap. Nobody desper- our only chance
This provides a good comparison. For us children, the future means 70, 80,
or even 90 more years, but for adults it only means 20 or 30 more years. So
ately needs strawberries from the other side of the planet in winter!
for our future.
if the adults act even a little like the monkeys, our future will undoubtedly end
Now that we mention food, the same principle is true for meat consumption. In
up looking pretty dim. By choosing to live more comfortably today, rather than
the past, our grandparents only ate meat once a week. Meat is so cheap now
considering the needs of future generations, we humans will essentially be acting
that many people, especially those in well-off countries, eat it every single day.
like the monkeys in the experiment.Even though we children generally hate
If we agree on global rules that every product’s price should also reflect the
having to follow rules, nobody would disagree that we need them. Without rules
amount of CO2 that is created during the production process, then meat would
* Chief Swan from
a native American
tribe explained
“sustainability”
to us: “For each
decision the Elder
of our village
are checking
whether the seventh
generation after
ours still has an
advantage of it.”
We kids need
rules – The
world does,
too!
We children are global
citizens and world politicians

“Each leaf binds
CO2”. Our new
campaign 2012
be a lot more expensive and people would go back to eating less of it
(and living healthier lives).
All of us Climate Justice Ambassador agree that we are planting as
many trees around the world as possible because we want to keep the
climate stable. We have also learned that we need to focus our energy
on establishing the right rules and laws around the globe too – so that
the people who still haven’t realized how important it is to do something
against the climate crisis are in a sense “required to come along”
with the rest of us.
We should learn from recent
history!
¨ Children and adolescence are especially concerned
about the issues of global poverty and the climate
crisis.
¨ 3/4 of children and adolescence see poverty and
climate change as the greatest challenges worldwide.
¨ 2/3 of children and adolescence see climate change as
an existential threat to humankind.
Bertelsmann Study 2009 / Shell Youth Study 2010
Nobody knows today if the world’s sea levels will rise by 0.2 or 2.0 meters by
the end of the century. But there are three things that we children know for sure:
We Climate Justice Ambassadors keep up with what is happening in the world –
many of us will live through till the end of this century.
with every ton of carbon that we take out of the ground
it’s not just adults who read newspapers or follow the news. Because of this we
in the form of petroleum, coal, and crude oil and then
have realized that our governments would much rather give money out to banks
and car companies than to normal individuals who have a much more urgent
need for it. We have known for many years that 30,000 people starve to death
around the world every day. A large portion of these 30,000 starving people are
release into the atmosphere as CO2, we are making the
greenhouse effect even stronger.
we already have the technology to be able to leave
children. They are starving in a rich world.
At the G8 Summit in Great Britain in 2005, the government leaders from the
petroleum, coal, and crude oil in the ground (Uranium too,
of course, because we children don’t want deadly atomic
waste).
eight richest countries on earth came together and solemnly promised to double
In addition, the amount of mineral oil, natural gas and coal that
the amount of aid they would give to Africa by 2010. That would have been 30
we take from the earth and burn every day is equivalent to
billion US dollars. However, aid to Africa remains, even now, 20 billion dollars
what the sun absorbs within one million days. We have already
less than it should be – so they have broken their promise. By the way, 20 billion
been releasing these waste products into the atmosphere for decades. Thus the
dollars is pretty much the same amount of the money that the bankers on Wall
greenhouse effect is always intensifying and the temperature rising. As a result
Street* paid to themselves as additional salaries (bonuses) at the end of 2009
of global warming, some regions are experiencing more and more floods, and
– a year after the government saved them – with tax payer money.
other more droughts. As mentioned it is the people from the poor parts of the
world, who remain closest to the mercy of nature, who will suffer most from the
We children have asked ourselves, why don’t adults do anything against these
consequences of the climate crisis. This is despite that fact that they themselves
injustices – they read newspapers too, right?! Instead of providing help and aid
to the people in poor countries, we are leaving them alone to suffer the most
contributed least to global warming.
* severe consequences of global warming, which we in the rich countries helped
to create.
Why don’t we assume the climate scientists are right (or perhaps even that it
is much worse than they even realize) and change our behaviour accordingly?
If in 40 years from now we were to learn that global warming isn’t as bad as
We children are not climate researchers. We understand neither the global
predicted, then we can be happy and secure in the knowledge that we didn’t
financial system, nor the global economy. We children do not know if it will be the
climate scientists who are proven right or the climate skeptics.
irrevocably harm our planet.
The New York
106 107
Stock Exchange
is called the
most important
stock exchange
in the world.

„Every generation needs a new revolution.“
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826, President of the USA)
What gives us courage?
History has shown us that every group has had to fight for its future.
The dependence on imported fossil fuels (oil, gas and coal) is also a major
cause for the dept in Europe. The 27 EU countries spend over € 400 billion
per year for backward raw material imports. We would need no more EU
Women have fought and are still fighting for their rights all around
the world. A classic example is Wangari Maathai in Africa. People
rescue packages if we would finally move to future energy.
like Martin Luther King in the USA or Nelson Mandela in South Africa
2. Put poverty to the museum through climate justice.
have also had to fight for human rights. Perhaps there isn’t any
To restrict the future warming to just 2°C, which was promised by the heads of
other choice for us kids but to fight for our right for an own future
the governments in Copenhagen, only 600 billion tons of CO2 can be released
too.
until 2050. If we produce more CO2 than this the temperature will also
increase more than 2°C. If the average temperature increases by more than
In 2007 we were just a handful of kids, but today, in 2012, we are
2°C there is a chance that the ice in Greenland could melt completely. This
a few thousand and although some still might not notice us, in a
would mean that the mean sea Level would rise by 7 metres. If we divide 600
few years, when we have grown even larger they won’t be able to
billion tons of CO2 by 40 years this allows 15 billion tons of CO2 per year. In
ignore us any longer …
2010 31 billion tons of CO2 was produced. The next question we face is how
we can divide these 15 billion tons of CO2 fairly across the worlds population?
During the UNEP Children and Youth Conference in South Korea
Should it continue like it is today with the USA and Europe producing more
in August 2009, 800 children from almost 100 countries
than 60 percent just by themselves? For us children there is only one solution:
around the world adopted a joint statement for the Climate
everybody gets the same, meaning 1.5 tons of CO2 per person per year,
Summit in Copenhagen. Although it didn’t end up keeping
the summit from being a failure, it is noteworthy that we kids
estimating a population increase to 9 to 10 billion people by 2050.
successfully formulated a joint statement.
So what happens for those who want to use more? Quite simply: Who wants
more has to pay more. If a European citizen wants to produce 10 tons of CO2
What would we children do?
Or: our „3-Point-Plan to save our
he can do this, but he needs to buy the right for it from other people e.g. from
the people in Africa who on average only produce 0.5 tons of CO2. Thus the
principle of climate justice ensures that poverty will be put into the museum.
future“
With the money earned, the Africans could then invest in food, education
and medical supplies. They will also be discouraged from making the same
108 mistakes as we did with coal, mineral oils and all the other fossil fuels. Instead
109
We kids have thought a lot about what we would do if we were the leaders of
they can generate their energy with the help of the sun and other renewable
the world’s governments and were preparing to come together at the next
sources, thus keeping their CO2 emissions to a minimum, and maintaining
decision-making climate summit. What would we do in order to save our future?
We’ve organized our answers to this question into our “3-Point-Plan to Save Our
their right to sell their unused share.
Future.”
Perhaps 2°C doesn’t sound like much, but this would mean significant changes
for us children. Exactly what would change is for now unsure. One thing we
1. Leave fossil energy in the ground.
do know however is that years ago when the temperature was 5°C lower than
We humans absolutely have to get our CO2 emissions levels down to zero by
today, there was a layer of ice, two kilometres thick across most of Europe.
2050. The technology for such a CO2-free future already exists.
Even if we remain below 600 billion tons of CO2 output until 2050 it is only
Based on today’s engineering it would easily be possible to transition to
75% certain that the average temperature rise will remain below 2°C. No one
renewable sources for ALL of the world’s energy needs (without the need for
nuclear power) by 2050.
knows exactly what is going to happen.

3. Planting 1,000 billion trees.
trees planted in southern countries. In tropical regions trees grow faster and
We want to protect the existing woods and we want
to plant 1,000 billion of new trees. Trees are the only
therefore absorb more CO2.
“machines” that split “CO2” and directly bind “C”. In addi-
When 1,000 billion trees were to be planted, this would operate as an additional
tion, trees are small “sugar factories”. In the last 200
carbon storage and would absorb and store an additional 10 billion tons of CO2.
years, about half of the world’s forests have been lost.
Such a significant reduction in the atmospheres CO2 is urgently needed.These
Today there are still 3,000 billion trees standing in our
10 billion tons of CO2 could act as something like a time-joker, then giving us
forests. This number is a satellite-based estimate. In
a greater time buffer to effectively reduce our emission levels. With this buffer
Germany, the foresters in 2008, counted all the trees in
instead of 15 billion tons of CO2 being allowed (as previously calculated) we
an inventory and came to 7 billion trees. Based on our
would be allowed to exhaust per year, we even exhaust 31 billion tons CO2 in the
own study it is easily possible to plant one billion hec-
year 2010. From 2009 to 2010 emission were actually increased by 5%, rather
tares of new forests that are not in competition with other uses (agriculture,
than being decreased.If the trend of a 5% increase in CO2 emissions each year
settlements, ...) and are no desert areas. By converting acres into square
continues we would have used up our CO2 budget of 600 bn t (billion tons) by
meters, that is 10,000 billion square meters, we can better understand, that
2024. If on the other hand we remain at the same level of emissions each year,
we can plant one tree per 10 square meters. Therefore, the actually available
so at 31 bn t of CO2, we still would have used up
space suitable for reforesting is sufficient to plant 1,000 billion new trees.
our budget of 600 bn t CO2 by 2029 and would
have subsequently created the 2°C increase in
1,000 billion trees sounds like a huge amount, it is a one with twelve zeros,
temperature.
but some examples show that it is possible: The Chinese alone planted 2.7
Both of these outcomes must be prevented –
billion trees in 2009 as a contribution to the UNEP-Billion Tree Campaign. If
and of course planting trees is going to be an
everybody plants 150 trees in the next ten years we will reach 1,000 billion
trees by 2020. By working together we can definitely achieve this. It isn’t that
important factor in helping to prevent this!
hard and it is not impossible anymore.
Why do adults want to push the CO2 into the earth and call the whole thing CCS
1,000 billion trees worldwide
the millionth tree in Germany
then? CCS means Carbon Capture and Storage. No one is 100% certain that
Unfortunately we children aren’t going to
CCS will work and no one can be sure that it won’t be dangerous to press the
be able to plant 1,000 billion trees alone.
110 CO2 into the earth. Will it remain there for ever? What happens if doesn’t? Who
We will need some help from adults too.
111
will want to live next to a CO2 disposal zone? There are many questions to be
Although, we have already achieved a lot
answered... Sometimes it is really difficult to understand the adults! Why don’t
by ourselves. We children have been busy
they want to use the safe CCS method via the trees, which has already been
for years already working to plant one
working for millions of years? To plant trees is considered child’s play. and we
can save the carbon in trees, but also in wooden furniture, wooden houses,
million trees in every country on earth.
etc. for many years. Adults would prefer to invest a vast amount of money into
In Germany it took just 3 years until we had planted the millionth tree! On May
research for CCS. Why don’t we invest the same amount of money as would
4th 2010 the millionth tree was planted in Petersberg near Bonn together with
be used for the CCS-research into forestation; an effective method of CCS that
has already existed for millions of years? If every human on our earth planted
150 trees within the next ten years in total 1,000 billion trees would be planted.
Those who don’t have space in their surrounding area can also donate to have
the Environment Ministers from Denmark, Germany, Canada, Mexico and Turkey.
On December 9 th
2009 in front of
the chancellery in
Berlin, Germany
On the 4th of May 2010
at the Petersberg in
Bonn, Germany

Here we hand
over the letter
addressed to
US President
Barack Obama
to the american
We are Future Lobbyists ...
Or: how we are fighting for our
future
We young people, 15 years and older, we call ourselves Future Lobbyists. The
term goes back to the lobby, so called in English the “lobby“ of Parliament.
Lobbyists are people who influence the policy, namely the governments and
parliaments in decision-making, so that appropriate laws are enacted.
We Future Lobbyists are not fighting for an economy sector, but we are
fighting for our future.
The Heads of Government
We have sent our letter twice to all heads of governments of the world
in July 2010 and September 2011, so that they would then be able
to discuss our proposals and solutions. To make sure that the letters
arrived, and also to save postage, we children handed them over directly to
the heads of government in the capital cities. The rest we have delivered to the
embassies in Berlin on July 1st 2010.
Our letter to the heads of government had the following question as a headline:
The United Nations
The climate does not know any borders and the climate crisis can also
not be solved by any individual head of government alone. We tried to
make excuses for the lack of responses from the heads of government,
as it is likely that each individual head of government was quite simply
overextended. Essentially each government is only responsible for their
own people who elected them. Of course every Government wants to be
re-elected and they won’t want to do anything to jeopardise this. Maybe
it would be better for us to address the international community and the
United Nations with our 3-Point-Plan to save our future instead. This we
can do!
When do the heads of governments meet each other to talk about saving the
future for us children?
We were looking on the website of the United Nations, the UN, to find which
organisations might be interested in our 3-Point-Strategy. Besides the UN, itself
with its plenum in New York, we found out about other sub-organisations which
might be important for us children.
• The UNEP, the Environment Program which has its headquarters in Nairobi,
„Do you have plans to save our future?“ You can find all the answers that we
• The UNFCCC with its headquarters in Bonn, Germany. UNFCCC one says
received on our website. We thought it was important that all children around the
„UN triple C“, meaning Framework Convention on Climate Change.
world had the possibility to read these responses, comment on them and start
• The CBD has it headquarters in Montreal, Canada. CBD stands for the
discussions about them.
Convention on Biological Diversity.
ambassador
• The UNFF, United Forum on Forests. It has its headquarters in New York
112 in Berlin We children were sure that at least half of the heads of government would
City, USA.
113
answer. Disappointingly only 15 out of almost 200 governments answered.
This included Angola, Burkina Faso, Canada, Denmark,
• The UNCCD, Convention to Combat Desertification, Bonn, Germany.
Germany, Kenya, Lebanon, Malta, Montenegro,
These five were enough for now. We would not be able to accomplish more in
Morocco, Mexico, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria
the first year anyway. All these organisations hold meetings on regular basis and
and USA. Some answers were very vague and
invite the governments and the heads of governments along. We soon found out
contained few concrete promises. We were
very shocked.
about some events that would be important for us.
Could it really be true that our future is
of such little importance to the heads of
governments? Thus is it really up to us
UNEP: Environmental Program
children to save our future on our own?
The UNEP is a very important organisation. It coordinates all the environmental
Who else should help us children with
activities of the UN. Its present executive director, Achim Steiner and his team
our fight to save our future?
have also started working on the Billion-Tree-Campaign together with the two
Kenya.
Yugratna, Global
Board 2011/12,
at the General
Assembly of the UN
in New York 2009

patrons Wangari Maathai and Prince Albert II. Wangari Maathai has been a great
inspiration for Felix and Felix in turn has also been a great inspiration for the rest
of us children. We children have in turn roused more and more children who have
continued the chain of inspiring others.
Since 2007 Achim’s predecessor and former executive director, Klaus Toepfer,
has been the patron of the Plant-for-the-Planet Children´s Initiative. During his
term as UNEP-boss Klaus instigated the UNEP/TUNZA Junior-Board for the
children around the world. For this Junior Board the children elect one representative
for each continent every two years. Furthermore the UNEP organises a
t-shirts saying: ”You’ve been discussing longer than we are old. Don’t tell us you
Children’s’ Conference every year. At this conference many hundreds of children
need more time!“ In Cancun no concrete plans emerged either. One positive
participate, often from more than 100 countries. These meetings are really cool.
from Cancun was that some island states declared that they cannot support the President of Ecuador
You meet children from all over the world and you find out that they think the
same way as you. They are also concerned about the future and the environment.
You can make great friendships there and network a lot. You can register
yourself if you want to participate at the next meeting:
www.unep.org/tunza.... The UNEP also supports the other four UN-sub-
goal to limit temperature increase to 2°C as their islands would already be under
water with this outcome. They have asked the other governments to understand
that they can only accept a goal that would limit the maximum temperature
increase to 1.5°C.
Rafael Correa
planting with us
children and making
the campaign
picture with Alessa
form Mexico
organisations:
During the COP16 in Cancun we children invited all delegates to plant a tree
together with us. Raphael Correa, the President of Ecuador, was the only head of
UNFCCC: The Climate Summit
government who planted a tree with us, as only a very limited number of heads
of government showed up personally for the Climate Summit in Cancun. A
dozen ministers planted the national tree of their country with us and the rest of
When all the governments come together, these meetings are called Conference
the trees were planted by delegates. In total 193 trees were planted. We thought
of the Parties. The Climate Summit in Copenhagen 2009 was COP15. The
it would be a cool idea if at the beginning of each conference, whatever the
headquarters of the UNFCCC are in Bonn.
subject, the adults would plant at least one tree for every attendee, participating
country and participating party, together with us children. Maybe then the adults
In 1997, the COP3 was held in Kyoto, a city in Japan. This event, which became
would think more about the future of us children while they were making crucial
quite well known, resulted in the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol was an
agreement made by many governments on the rules and guidelines for the
decisions for or against our future at their conference.
114 reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. The Kyoto Protocol, one of the
first environmental global contracts, will unfortunately end in 2012.
12/11, the darkest day for our future
COP17 in Durban, South Africa in December 2011 ended in a disaster for our
115
The 15th climate conference was held in 2009 in Copen-
future. The governments agreed they would not come up with a new contract
hagen. Over 100,000 people from all over the world,
before 2020. That means from 2013 to 2020 there will no longer be any more
world citizens, including many youth, came to Copenha-
binding agreements. The head of governments broke their promise to limit the
gen, but COP15 was a failure. The world leaders did not
temperature by less than 2°C. Without any commitment to reducing greenhouse
agree on a subsequent contract to replace the Kyoto
gases from 2012 onwards the 2°C goal has become absolutely impossible.
Protocol. The only promise the world leaders made was
Some scientists predict 4°C plus.
that the average temperature will not rise by more than
As if this was not enough, only a couple of hours after the Canadian Environment
2°C.
Minister returned from Durban, he said, that Canada was officially withdrawing
We were all very disappointed and angry with the
from the Kyoto protocol. According to the Kyoto Protocol, Canada had to reduce
results. At the next meeting in December 2010,
its CO2 emissions by 6% by 2012 compared to 1990. But by 2010, it exceeded
COP16 in Cancun, Mexico, the young people wore
35% above the 1990 level. The decision to withdraw will save the Canadian
www.unep.org
Whoever wants
to join in:
simply register
at the UNEP!
Or E-mail us!
info@plant-for-theplanet.org
We children did not
travel to Copenhagen,
but made pressure
by demonstrating in
front of the German
chancellery December
9 th 2009

Six young Canadians
turn their back on
Canada´s government
during COP17 in
Durban, South Africa
government estimated US$14 billion (€ 11 billion) in
penalties, the Canadian Government explained.
Five days earlier, six young Canadians were thrown out of
the UN climate change negotiations in Durban, South Africa.
Matthew, Sonia, Brigette, Meghan, James and Karen
explain why: “As Canada’s environment minister delivered his opening address to
the plenary of assembled countries, we stood up in silence and turned our backs
on him. We wore T-shirts that read “People before Polluters,” and “Turn Your
Back On Canada.” UN security ushered us out, stripped us of our badges and
ejected us from the building. One person can take a stand. Six people can take
a stand. But it is when hundreds of us, thousands, millions of us choose to stand
up to our government and advocate for an alternative to the current path, that a
safe home for us all becomes possible again.”
Felix (14) and Carolin (13) travelled all the way from Germany to Durban, but as
minors from the civil society, as of 2011 they were not longer allowed to join
the high level end COP17 negotiations, despite Felix and friends being granted
access to the high level end negotiations the year before in Cancun.
UNFF: Forum on
Forests
When the governments came
together for the kick-off of the International
Year of Forests in February
2011 in New York in the UN General
Assembly, we took the opportunity
to introduce our 3-Point-Plan. You can find the video and the speech transcript
on our website. The title of our speech was: “Of Forests, Monkeys and Mosquitoes.
“We compared the behavior of the adults with that of a monkey and appealed to
the children of the world with the metaphor that one thousand mosquitoes can
make a rhinoceros change its direction.
UNCCD: Convention to Combat
Desertification
In the
Auditorium of the
UN General Assembly
we six present our
3-Point-Plan to save
our future in February
2011
How can we children trust adults?
That they will not break their promises again in future?
This UN-convention is focussing on drylands. 41% of the Earth is covered by
That no other governments will follow Canada’s lead and withdraw from
drylands and over 2 billion people live there. The UNCCD supports forestation
binding agreements in future?
In our Global Board we have decided that, during the next COPs, starting from
projects all over the world to fight the desertification in drylands. We children
cooperate with the UNCCD to plant trees in drylands.
We children give a
Francesco from South
Africa and Annie from
Kanada together with
two children from
Japan pointed
116 out their view
of the world on
Qatar in 2012, we will concentrate on holding demonstrations in front of the
government buildings and embassies in our capitals, as we did in Berlin during
COP15. We will demonstrate for global binding agreements to be made before
2020 and we will fight for climate justice. Without climate justice our future will
become bleaker and bleaker every day.
CBD: Biological Diversity
Parliaments
After receiving so few reactions from the heads of government, we were forced
to think about alternative and additional ways: If the heads of
government show so little interest in our proposals then we will
have to ensure it ourselves that important laws for our future are
speech at the congress
of Quintana Roo in
México
117
COP10, the conference
being enacted. There are laws being enacted in most countries by
for biological diversity
in the Japanese Nagoya
Every two years governments also meet to talk about biological diversity.
At the moment 180 animal species and plant species become extinct every
the parliaments. This is most commonly in democratic countries.
We think that the easiest solution might be if the parliaments would
day and extinction means for ever. In October 2010 the tenth meeting, the
decide that each citizen of their country has to plant 150 trees until
COP10, took place in the Japanese city of Nagoya with Annie, Clara, Felix
2020. Quite simple, but effective law. This is also something that
and Francesco from the UNEP-Tunza-Junior Board
the local councils and the city council could decide. If a country
participating and speaking. This conference was
already has so many trees that it cannot plant anymore then the
successful and ended with a Nagoya protocol.
citizens could plant trees in the southern countries, either perso-
COP11 takes place in October 2012 in Hyderabad
nally or via donation. Many communities have sister towns, many
(Andhra Pradesh), India.
schools have sister schools, many companies have subsidiaries
in other countries, there is also the internet and the possibility for
everyone, wealthy and poor, to work together and figure out how

they can help each other. The poorer countries of the South can offer something
very valuable, namely the tropics, where trees grow twice or three times as fast
as for example in Europe and thus bind more CO2.
The Parliament of the Federal State of Quintana Roo in Mexico was the first
Parliament to invite us children. This was a great honour as never before a
Non-Congress-Member had ever been allowed to speak in front of the congress.
And then a child in addition! We took this opportunity on 22nd April 2011 and for
the first time submitted our proposal for a law that each citizen should plant 150
trees. Only one year later, on 13th April 2012, Luis (14) and Felix together with
the mayor of Chetumal, the capital of Quintana Roo, have signed a contract that
the 140,000 citizens of the city including its suburbs, will plant each 150 trees
by 2020.
3-Point-Plan for states, cities,
communities and companies
Chetumal: A year after we spoke before the parliament of Quintana Roo, Luis
(14) from Chetumal and Felix have signed a formal contract with the mayor of
Chetumel that the 140,000 citizens of the city will each plant 150 trees, in total
21 million trees, and will seek to implement the other two points of our 3-Point-
Plan.
Kenya: In Kenya, the homeland of Wangari Maathai, every child learns that if he
doesn’t plant enough trees himself, “the air of others is breathed”. Over the last
five years, 1,419 people and organisations have together planted 495 million
trees in Kenya. On 19th April 2012, a number of these organisations together
explained that they plan to double this number to one billion trees by the end of
2012. Faridosa, a Future Lobbyist from Nairobi, and Felix have congratulated
them, and worked out that with this Kenya is commendably on target. By 2020,
the 40 million citizens will have to have planted 150 trees each, or 6 billion trees
together in total. In the first years it takes a little longer, but once people get to
know the processes, exceptional developments are possible such as doubling at
regular intervals.
Not every Climate Justice Ambassador (8-14 years old) or Future Lobbyist (15-
Hesse: The state of Hesse’s department of finance asked us for a suggestion
as to how the state could implement the 3-Point-Plan. You can read our detailed
21 years old) has the possibility to have contact with their national governments,
contribution in the anthology “climate neutrality in Hesse”, the following is only an
but every Ambassador or Future Lobbyist can contact his country’s politicians
abstract:
or the boards of companies in order to promote the 3-Point-Plan on a local,
• With its 6 million citizens, Hesse should start a “Billion Tree” campaign.
national, or company-wide scale. We would like to describe four examples of the
• The 100 biggest companies in Hesse can ideally start by planting 75 million
methods employed by the Future Lobbyists. 1 . Gran Canaria lies off the coast
trees for their nearly 500,000 employees.
of Africa and belongs to Spain, 2. Chetumal, the state capital of Quintana Roo,
• Hesse probably cannot offer enough space for all these additional trees, but
Mexico, 3. Kenya, 4. The German state of Hessen.
the climate doesn’t care where the trees are. To the contrary, trees in the
An historical Gran Canaria: together with the President of Gran Canaria, José Miguel Bravo
tropics bind much more CO2 than trees in Hesse.
moment. The
first contract
between a city
and the children of
Plant-for- the-Planet
de Laguna, we children developed a 3-Point-Plan for Gran Canaria to become
the greenest island by 2020.
1. By 2020, the Island’s energy supply must be produced by solar and wind
power rather than the burning of fossil fuels.
•
•
The ratio of rich to poor people on earth corresponds to 1:5. Hesse can
make use of existing partnerships with countries in the southern hemisphere
and/or set-up new partnerships with regions with at least 30 million citizens.
From our Plant-for-the-Planet network, we can arrange for two African
was made on 13 2. From 2020, the government shall not allow the use of vehicles powered by
countries to be partners, namely Kenya and the Kingdom of Lesotho.
fossil fuels; only the use of electric vehicles will be permitted.
• Hesse is also able to bring the transfer of technology to the partnership,
3. Since every global citizen has to plant 150 trees, the 830,000
and thanks to „Leap Frogging“, the partners won’t make the same mistakes,
inhabitants of Gran Canaria will therefore be responsible for the
but can, figuratively speaking, progress directly from the bicycle to the
planting of 120 million more trees: 10 million on the island itself,
electric car, and equip their homes with solar energy at the same time.
and 110 million in nearby African countries.
Through partnerships with car manufacturers, electric vehicles could be
offered at discount prices that would also be affordable for people with very
The millions of tourists that come to Gran Canaria every year can
low income-levels. Thus, the partners of Hesse, Kenya and Lesotho could
financially assist Gran Canaria to be the greenest island in the
together maintain the limit of 1.5 tons of CO2 per person per year on a
world..
long-term basis.
th 118 119
April
2012

We want to
collect a
voluntary
future-fee from
every business
sector. We
started with
our favourite
one: the
confectionery
industry
Future-fee from the private sector
We have also thought about how companies can help us. Many companies do
already support us, but we want to go a step further. We are hoping that an
entire industry could come together to help. Regarding our future the companies
should not consider themselves as competitors, but they should all campaign
together. We immediately knew which industry we wanted to approach first. Of
course all children’s favourite: the chocolate and sweet industry. In May 2011
an opportunity arose when the Swiss company Buhler, world market leader in
technical machines for manufacturing cacao, invited their customers from all
over the world and as well invited Felix as a speaker. Together Felix and the
bosses of Buhler proposed that every chocolate manufacturer should invest just
one Euro from every ton of chocolate sold, as future-fee into a future fund for the
children. This would be just 0.01% of their total annual turnover, which means
that per 10,000 $ turnover we will receive 1 $. That´s peanuts for the private
sector, but a huge opportunity for the children to plant trees, to empower other
children and to promote more sustainability.
The Communication Agency Leagas Delaney – who already came up with
are planting precious wood, they can later sell the wood for furniture production,
the idea for our campaign “Stop talking. Start planting.” – have designed a
compensating for CO2 emissions for a long time and increase the family income.
campaign for the entire chocolate industry: “Brown is the new green”. Buhler
We have found a producer of excellent Swiss chocolate, Chocolats Halba, and
produced 20,000 chocolate coins, called future coins and Felix immediately
we have found an expert to plant precious woods with the farmers, Pur Projet.
submitted the proposal to the companies in May 2011 in Duesseldorf. Not one
We have called our chocolate “The Change Chocolate” and have convinced the
single representative of a company committed himself, leaving Felix shocked
first retailers to sell our chocolate. A part of the salesprice of each chocolate
and very unhappy. But he did not give up and in January 2012 at the Sweet
bar is for the Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation to empower more children and to
120
Our first
Chocomob
in April 2012
in Munich,
Germany
Global Network New Year’s Reception the CEOs and in February 2012 at the
MMM Congress and the YPO Global Leadership Summit in front of 2,000 young
CEOs the first 60 companies from 12 countries committed themselves to the
future-fee, including Bahlsen, Becks Cocoa, BrandLogistics, Brandt, Buhler,
Chocolats Halba, Chocri, Confi serie Heilemann, Dehner, DMV Diedrichs Markenvertrieb,
farbtex, Heads! Personalberatung, Lanwehr Confiserie, Pit Süsswaren,
SweetTec, S&R Vertrieb, targetmedia, Trolli, Viba Nougat
und Zott.
plant additional trees.
We are very proud of our first Plant-for-the-Planet product. We produce „The world belongs
the chocolate bar the same way we children would produce every in the hands of
product on earth: fair and climat-just. Saving the world never tasted children“
so good.
Herbert Groenemeyer,
German singer
Our first global political party
121
We hope that many companies from all
different sectors will get involved. The
future-fee is collected by the Plantfor-the-Planet
Foundation and will be
invested purely in the organisation of
academies all over the world and in planting trees in countries in the Southern
hemisphere.
The Change Chocolate - Our first
Plant-for-the-Planet product
While preparing our future-fee proposal for the chocolate sector we
learned a lot about chocolate. The production of 100g chocolate
produces 300g CO2. We also learned that most of the 2 million cacao
farmers’ children have to work on the cacao fields instead of going to school.
As we in the rich countries are paying just a very low price for the cacao beans,
the farmers need the cheap child labour and cannot afford to employ adult
farmers.
During a Global Board meeting we came up with the idea to produce our own
chocolate, both child fair and CO2-neutral. The farmers should earn enough
money to send their children to school (as it would be fair trade) and we compensate
for the CO2 emissions with agroforestry, by planting trees. If the farmers
We consider the reaction from the heads of governments, or rather the lack of
reaction, to be a very plain and clear signal. We have understood. We will need
to take our future into our own hands, we will need to take action ourselves
and we will not be able to depend on the adults. At our yearly meetings we
have often considered the idea of founding our own political party. Our party
would then be a world party, in fact the first world party, with members in
every country on earth. Our “3-Point-Plan to save the future“ would be our party
platform and the basis of this first worldwide party. Our older members over 14
This is how our
new chocolate
looks like

years old have been working
organisations helps to strengthen
on this„global party“ project
our international network and con-
since our last yearly meeting
centrate our power and influence.
at the start of 2011. As
Our Plant-for-the-Planet Clubs are
soon as we are old enough
the most important active units of
we will found our own “Citi-
Plant-for-the-Planet. They make
zens of the World Party”.
their own decisions and take
Our
responsibility all on their own.
These groups also have a lot
democratic
structure
of power as they are the ones
who elect the members of our
Global Board once a year in springtime, one for the children
(8-14 years) and one for the young people (15-21 years).
We children are already leaders and authorities within our own initiative and
In the first Global Board most of the children came from Germany. But in the
foundation! The goal of our Children’s Initiative is that we children educate and
actual Global Boards 2012/13 both World Presidents and Vice World President
inspire one million other children to also become Climate Justice Ambassadors
by the year 2020. By 2020 we also want to have planted 1,000 billion trees
come from Asia. We are distributing the seats according to the world population.
worldwide. Of course we won’t be able to do this all on our own, we will need
By supporting the local Plant-for-the-Planet Clubs with their work we children of Global Board of the
some help from the adults. We also know that the first million in each country will
be the most difficult. Once we have managed that though, we will have already
built up a network of children and adults and then the second million will be much
easier and much faster. The next 3 million and 4 million will be even faster again!
the Global Board supervise the worldwide activities of the Children’s Initiative.
We children at the Global Board decide the general strategy and policies of the
organisation and we also establish the yearly priorities for action. We represent
the opinion of our organisation and talk to the media and the public in the name
Plant-for-the-Planet
Youth Initiative
2012/2013 from left
to right: Luis, Mexico;
Yugratna, India, Vice
Right at the beginning, Felix was alone with his great idea. Today there are more
of all members and clubs. Always in springtime we elect new members and up World President; Jessica,
than 10,000 other children who give speeches in more than 18 countries and
until the 1st of July the members of the previous Global Board hand over control Lebanon; Abhisekh,
122
World President;
Casey-May,
organise planting parties, just like Felix does. It is clear that the organisation
is growing one hundred times faster today than it did four years ago. As soon
as we have one million Climate Justice Ambassadors, who hold speeches and
organise planting parties in all the countries around the world, then we will be
spreading like wild fire. At the latest all the mighty and influential people in the
of the Initiative to the next Global Board and the next generation of Plant-for-the-
Planet children and young people. Re-election is not possible.
Our Global Board consists of 14 children, 14 young people and one adult. We
need to have one adult to take care of specific tasks such as finances and legal
affairs. Only this one adult is appointed by other adults and comes from the
Nepal; Lena, Germany;
Evelyn, Singapore;
Priyankha, South Africa;
Madhav, India; Lena,
Germany; Sagar,
Nepal, World 123
world should have heard about us by 2020.
foundation board of the Plant-for-the-Planet foundation.
Global Board of the
Plant-for-the-Planet
Children´s Initiative
2012/2013 from left to
right: Fernanda, Brazil;
Yun Qi Vicki, Singapore;
Hiba, Pakistan; Cameron,
South Africa; Carolin,
Germany; Eva, Italy;
Shanisse, Singapore,
World President;
Fátima, Spain; Rufat,
Azerbaijan, Vice
South Africa;
WanRui, China;
Shubham, India; Andrea,
Guatemala, Madhumita,
India
In our Initiative every one - no matter which nationality or age - can become a
member, so we will accept adults too. However only we children and young people
aged from 8 to 21 years, are allowed to vote. In our Initiative we children and
young people understand ourselves to be a world family of world citizens. While
the adults continue their debates (which have been going on longer than most of
us have been alive), we are getting on with the job and taking action ourselves.
You can start your own Plant-for-the-Planet Club!
As part of our democratic structure we already have thousands of Plant-forthe-Planet
local initiatives spread all over the world. Every single one of these
On January 31st 2010 during the third annual meeting of the Initiative, we, as
the 21 authors of this book, established the Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation. At
this time on January 31st, Felix had invited all of us to his home in a small village
called Paehl. It was there that we started to write this book and officially set up
the foundation.
With our Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation we support the Plant-for-the-Planet Clubs
with the organisation and the financing of their activities. The Plant-for-the-Planet
foundation makes agreements with national and global partners from businesses
and institutions.
President; Clara,
Canada; Antonella,
Germany. (Missing on
the picture: Laura,

We always shouted
out loud: „The
adults always say
the children are
the future. But
when there is
no future what
remains for us
children?“
I matter – we are important
Alec Loorz (16) from California is also committed to Plant-for-the-Planet and he
invited us to join his „I-matter-march“ on 8th May 2011. We thought this was
a great idea. Plant-for-the-Planet Clubs from five cities, Augsburg, Cancun,
Cologne, Dresden and Munich spontaneously joined the campaign too. That was
a lot of fun. The police closed roads just for us and rerouted the traffic. We held
up cardboard trees, printed and self-made posters and at the beginning and
end of our march we had a rally. By the evening we had all lost our voices after
shouting so much during the march.
It is quite easy to hold a demonstration. You only need to find one adult who can
apply for it to the authorities. In the democratic countries of the world, freedom
of expression is a legal right. This means that every one can apply to hold a
demonstration.
Demonstration is derived from the Latin word demonstrare = show. Through a
demonstration we can publicly show that for us our future is important.
following suggestion: „If we children raise the money then one assistant could
actually work at our home during daytime.“
The parents agreed and Felix and his friends wrote 40 letters to companies. The
company Toyota was the first which answered and gave money. Still in December
2007, the first assistant was hired. In 2008, the second and third one already
followed. The parents cleared the second, the third and in summer 2011 the
fourth room, as already twelve assistants worked in the house of Felixs‘ parents
in Paehl. In the garage there were no cars, bicycles or lawn-mowers, those were
standing on the terrace but in the garage the parents put up shelves and within
stored all the great books which the Climate Justice Ambassadors would receive
during the Academies. Just in time before the house and the garage would burst
at the seams the owner of the supermarket chain Tengelmann, family Haub,
came to know about this fact and gave the children‘s initiative a new home for
autumn 2011 in Tutzing with more than 200 sqm office space and 70 sqm
storage space directly at the train station and with view at the Starnberg Lake.
As symbol for our new home we have started at our opening party to build a tree
house at the bank of the Starnberg Lake. It will be the most intelligent tree house
of the world. Our tree house will be connected to many other trees all around the
world and it will exchange the latest news. The tree house should become
something like our symbol that we children in the world connect each other
via the trees.
Thanks to all adults who take us seriously!
Alec and his friends have sued the federal government in the United States for
We are glad that many adults invite us as speakers. It is really fun for us when
the following reasons: If a company disposed of poison on a public area, the
we are allowed to tell you older people how we children see the future, how we
government is obliged to repair the municipal area and to pursue the polluter.
feel when we read the newspaper and how we children think and feel when a
When companies destroy the climate and thus our future with their products, the
further Climate Summit fails again.
124 July 2011 with
Peter Maffay, a
German singer
government is also responsible to restore the climate, which is a common good,
that belongs to the community to recover. We can still choose children and
young people, but we can complain.
Our office
If you invite us as speaker we are glad to come. We always do this voluntarily
and put our whole salary into the next Academy in which again we children set
80 further children on fire to joín us. We prefer to organise the Academy right on
the same day and place of the speech. Therewith further children learn how to
plant trees, to hold speeches and they also put their salary in Academies again,
etc. We always give the answer to everybody who asks us what he or she can
125
Certainly we children also need a secretariat
do: „Invite 80 children at the age of 10-12 years out of ten or twenty schools
meaning assistants who organise everything and
for one day to an Academy. An Climate Justice Ambassador who has already
they need an office. The first months after Felixs‘
been educated during an earlier Academy comes and sets the 80 new children
speech and after his first tree he and his friends
on fire to join us.“ That is the best what you can do for us.
were able to still answer the e-mails themselves.
We certainly thank all VIPs who allow us to hold their mouth and therewith help
Gregor Hintler and Sascha Suaheli, high-school
to spread our vision into the world. Thank you to all private people, companies
gratuates from Tutzing have installed the
and institutions who gave us money as only with their help
website. Then it became more and more all the
we already could reach so much and found our childrens‘
time. Felix had an idea and made his parents the
foundation. All adults who do not pamper us but fight together
with us for our future: Thank you !
The opening of our Tree
house on 1 st

We are also pleased about all the mark of recognition and many awards
which we get from adults all over the world: Bavarian State Medal,
B.A.U.M environmental price, „2010 International Young Eco-Hero
Award“ (USA), GWA Golden Social Effie 2010 for „Stop talking.
Start planting.“, 21st Century Superhero (Global Tolerance and
UNESCO), Humanity4Water Award in the category Polar Bear, Success
for Future Award 2011, sea Award 2012 for Felix´ lifework.
We are also happy about the many reports in the media. In the first five
years more than ten thousand media coverages all over the world have
reported about us. They help us that more adults and more children get to
know us.
Social Media
The potential of the Internet - Let´s follow the Arabic example!
”One mosquito can’t do anything against a rhino, but a thousand mosquitoes
together can make a rhino change its direction”. Via internet we can reach
thousands of people and tell them about our activities! For instance: More than
800 million people using facebook. Everyone of us can work to expand and
maintain our global family!
facebook: “Stop talking. Start planting”: facebook.com/plantfortheplanet
Twitter: Twitter.com/pftp_int
Together we can achieve a lot!
Internet enables us to communicate in groups and coordinate our actions. Many
so called flashmobs happened because people had creative ideas! These flashmobs
create big attention! Just imagine a thousand children standing in front of
the seats of government in their capital cities during the meetings at the Climate
Summit. Or the children meeting at the embassies that are most important for
the climate negotiations and planting trees. Many trees.
And if it’s not possible to plant trees, then waving paper trees, like the children
from Berlin did in front of their Chancellery on 9 December 2009, while the
Climate Summit was underway in Copenhagen.
To experience something like this gives courage
We know that the 14,000 children who participated in our academies are just
the beginning. Our goal is to reach one million children until 2020. We will
always work to encourage many more kids around the world and show them that
together great things can be achieved. And we’re not stopping. We are going to
keep planting until there is climate justice and until our future is finally saved!
Almost every school has a partner school somewhere in another part of the
world. After reading this book you can explain to them how Plant-for-the-Planet
works. Invite them to plant trees with you. Trees are our symbols for climate
justice. Trees are symbols for our future.
What to do?
Initiating and being part of an extensive worldwide network has become a whole
• Become a fan of our facebook page “Stop Talking. Start Planting” and “Die
lot easier thanks to the internet. Everybody can participate – no matter where
126 Gute Schokolade“ and promote the site on your wall. Invite your friends too!
they are in the world. We have to fight for our own future together.
127
• Post pictures on our facebook wall and tag yourself or your friends
• Tape your own video, upload it at youtube and post the link on our facebook
If not us, then who?
wall!
If not now, then when?
• Join our global community at www.plant-for-the-planet.org: Upload pics and
reports about your activities and post the link in your own facebook profile
By continuing to work together across all borders, we children of the world have
a real chance for a safe and happy future!
The Arabic Revolution showed us that internet has the power to connect people
and help them combine their forces! Let’s use the internet to create attention! If
Franziska once said, “If we see ourselves as a world family, we
the youth in the Arabic world can do it, so can we!
can overcome both, the climate and poverty crises.”
We agree!

Contact:
Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation
Lindemannstr. 13
82327 Tutzing, Germany
Tel. +49 (0) 88 08 93 45
Fax +49 (0) 88 08 93 46
www.plant-for-the-planet.org
info@plant-for-the-planet.org
We are always available on our
website. It grows day to
day through the help
of many children and
young people.
128
Special e-mail
addresses:
Questions about
participating in/organizing
a Plant-for-the-Planet
Academy:
academy@
plant-for-the-planet.org
Questions about donations:
donation@
plant-for-the-planet.org
For the monthly newsletter:
newsletter
@plant-for-the-planet.org
Abhisekh, Alberto, Alec, Alina, Andrea, Anting, Antonella Ambra, Antonia, Cameron,
Carolin, Carolina, Casey-May, Caterina, Clara, Clara Madeleine, Else, Eva,
Evelyn, Fatima, Felix, Fernanda, Franziska, Hanna, Hiba, Jessica, Jona, Josia, Joy,
Jule B., Jule S., Julian, Karoline, Laxman, Lea, Lena A., Lena S., Laura, Leon, Liam,
Lione, Luis Angel, Luisa, Madhav, Madhumita, Maiken, Martha, Max, Melik-Sina,
Merle, Mira, Miriam, Moritz, Niklas, Nour, Paulina, Priyankha, Radhika, Raphael,
Rufat, Sagar, Shanisse, Shubham, Szesima, Viacheslav, Wan Rui, Yugratna. Yun
Qi Vicki and all other members of Plant-for-the-Planet.*
Are you with us?
Become a member, too!
Everybody can become a member, even adults, but only we
children and young people have the voting rights to elect our
Global Boards.*
Donation account
Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation
Konto 200 000
BLZ 700 20 500
IBAN DE13 7002 0500 0000
200000
BIC BFSWDE33MUE
The Plant-for-the-Planet
Foundation is recognized as
a charitable foundation by the
Garmisch-Partenkirchen Tax
Foundation, Germany and can
issue tax-deductible receipts
for donations in certain
countries.
Image credits
Unless otherwise indicated, the
images used in this book come
from the archives of the
student-initiative Plant-forthe-Planet.
The publishing
house has put its best efforts
into determining all image
sources. Any claims that
have been overlooked may be
subsequently claimed.
Campaign Photos: Andreas
Biedermann, Anita Bischoff,
Per Eriksson, Annette Koroll,
Andreas Müller, Thomas
Rosenthal, Bernd Schumacher,
Markus Seidel and Jens Umbach.
Photos of Academies: Andreas
Biedermann, Portraits of the
Climate Justice Ambassadors:
Andreas Mueller, Illustrations:
Carsten Abelbeck.
P. 11, t.r., Riemann; P. 11, b.l.,
Wanjira Mathai; P. 15, Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung, Augsburger
Allgemeine und The Korea
Herald; P. 18, dpa; P. 19, epubli
GmbH (www.epubli.de); P. 20,
Fritz Pölking/Okapia; P. 21,
epa-Bildfunk; P. 23, dpa; P. 25,
b. Shane Doyle Photography;
P. 30, t., meteomedia; P. 30,
b., DigitalVision; P. 33, l.,
Digital Vision; P. 33, r., dpa;
P. 40, Sammlung Gesellschaft
fürökologische Forschung/
Schweizerisches Alpines
Museum Bern; P. 41, l., Jason
Branz – Fotolia.com; P. 41, r.,
Martina Topf – Fotolia.com;
P. 46, guentermanaus Fotolia.
com; P. 48, Creativ Collection;
P. 49, Christine Anrather; P.
56, Photodisc; P. 57, Creativ
Collection; P. 60, Margret
Rasfeld; P. 71, Mittelschwäbische
Nachrichten; P. 87, Claus-Peter
Lieckfeld und Veronika Straaß;
P. 88, Backarts;
P. 103, m., Nawal Mdallaly; P.
105, 107, Leagas Delaney; P.
108, Kids vs. Global Warming; P.
110, Michael Setzpfand; P. 111,
Andreas Biedermann; P. 112,
114, Michael Setzpfand; P. 116,
t., Canadian Youth Delegates; P.
116 d., CBD, Andreas Müller; P.
120, 122, 123, Andreas Müller;
P. 124 d., Bettina Kelm.
*We are the authors of
this book, the members of
the Children´s Global Board
2011/12, the Children´s Global
Board 2012/13 and the Youth
Global Board 2012/13.
*Plant-for-the-Planet is
a worldwide membership
organisation. You can become
a member, too. For registration
please visit our website: http://
www.plant-for-the-planet.org/en/
member.
Here you will find the
membership registration form. If
you are unable to register online,
please give us a call under: +49
8808 9345 or send an email to:
members@plant-for-the-planet.org