Tree by Tree - Plant-for-the-Planet

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)!