But..... what if... she DOES do actual things in her own daily life to effect climate change?
And here’s a crazy one for you- most people don’t own giant industrial conglomerates or countries- so they can’t just “change those themselves” except by... voting and advocating change or educating on the issues, creating political pressure to compel politicians and others to act too.
Planting trees is great* we need trees. But it isn’t “the solution to climate change.” We can’t just exponentially increase industrial pollution and personal waste and plant more trees. Companies already do this. They are called “carbon credits.” By planting trees and other “green” acts, they get tax breaks and or can avoid being labeled as gross polluters even when they create huge amounts of pollution. They can also buy/sell/trade these credits, so a conglomerate operating a business that is cheap and “easy” to make very green and doesn’t NEED green credits, can use that as a “farm” for carbon credits to use on other businesses they own that would otherwise have to clean up and would likely do more actual good being cleaned up.
Trees also pretty much take care of CO2- a major “greenhouse gas” in climate change theories- but by far not the only one or the most dangerous on its own. There are also ecological impacts to planting trees as well as long term things to think about. The California wild fires were caused by accident of industry but fueled by large areas of trees and wilderness that wasn’t maintained- the same fuel in Australia was unmaintained growth.
Even in biomes where dense trees are native, increasing the density of trees can effect wildlife, local ecosystems, water distribution, and even weather. On a large scale this can impact local or global weather for better or for worse. In biomes where such collections of trees aren’t naturally present- such changes can be even more pronounced. Then there are potential issues such as a well meaning but ignorant person planting an invasive species or other non native tree or genetically incompatible tree of a similar species- which can also happen to knowledgeable folks through accident or some sort of mix up in supply etc. this can change or destroy local ecosystems as well. That’s ignoring the possibility to introduce pests or disease in trees.
Which happens. When Japanese cherry blossoms first cake in large numbers to the USA- japan donated thousands of trees to be planted in Washington DC- most of them were destroyed when they arrived because they failed inspection and had pests or disease. (Japan donated WAY more after that, and that’s why there are so many Japanese cherry trees in DC- but that’s another story for another time and very interesting too!)
We do not as humans really understand or pisses the science to really predict what massive changes to terraforming will do- and the one planet we know we can live on is not a great test bed. That said- while planting trees can be VERY beneficial- it’s also at best like adding blood bags to a transfusion for a stab wound- while continuing to stab them. Eventually- the bags won’t fix it. They aren’t a substitute to stopping the stabbing- they are part of stabilizing the wound and injury.
Tl:dr and in conclusion- there is a HUGE hypocrisy and a touch of irony in creating a meme to raise awareness that raising awareness is pointless and people should act. This is the same thing she is doing- trying to get peoples attention and focus to fix a perceived problem is it not? Is the person who made this actually doing anything to help? If they are- great. Then that means you CAN advocate a cause while still doing something about it- so she can too right? So this is either pointless, or hypocritical.
But... if we want to be negative and tear people down for trying to do good in the world.... how old is the person that made this, and what have THEY done to make change in the world? As far as reaching an audience with their message- a child is doing more, and will travel the world to do it as opposed to sitting at home on photoshop- so she’s doing more. If you’ve donated some money etc- my guess is she has raised more to the cause. Just a guess. So take your own advice, use the time making memes reading folks down to build the world up instead.
Also:
1. Planting trees is great, but does not exactly undo the vast addition of carbon to the biosphere that continues to come from burning fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide pulled from the air by trees will eventually return to the air -- the hope is that by expanding the biosphere, you can settle at a new point where the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide is ok. Note that the biosphere is not nearly big enough right now to do that, and we continue to burn fossil fuels.
2. The hardest part of "planting trees" is not getting a tree or planting it -- it's getting people to devote land to this purpose.
.
(TITLE FROM NEIN SITE)
And here’s a crazy one for you- most people don’t own giant industrial conglomerates or countries- so they can’t just “change those themselves” except by... voting and advocating change or educating on the issues, creating political pressure to compel politicians and others to act too.
1. Planting trees is great, but does not exactly undo the vast addition of carbon to the biosphere that continues to come from burning fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide pulled from the air by trees will eventually return to the air -- the hope is that by expanding the biosphere, you can settle at a new point where the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide is ok. Note that the biosphere is not nearly big enough right now to do that, and we continue to burn fossil fuels.
2. The hardest part of "planting trees" is not getting a tree or planting it -- it's getting people to devote land to this purpose.