Planting Trees

THE COLORADO RIVER originates high and tiny, as all rivers do, and gathers togerther significant water as it wends its way towards the Pacific. It look like many different rivers in one as it proceeds. At some points its slow and deep, at others, rapaciously rapid kayaking. The problem is that we humans are sucking it dry, and by the time it flows into the sea, is but barely a trickle of its former self. The imposition of neolithic "civilization" upon a dry barren bioregion, and the consequent enormous expansion of cities and populations throughout the American west Rain has probably been at a premium for at least thousands of years in this part of North America, and more so now, as climate change raises average temperatures, increases wind speed, and lowers annual rainfall. If climate change is a hoax, it is impressive in its ability to make the weather look much different now, on an evidently permanent basis. The two main water reservoirs in the area,Lakes Meade and Powell, are now both one third full. They have been shrinking gradually and steadily for twenty years, as they receive progressively less inflow. One theory is that when the current extended drought ends, they will return to their prior normal levels. Nobody can offer any evidence to support this presumption, for their is none. The more likely scenario is that the drought, which has lasted wenty two years, will continue, that future annual rainfall will not relturn to previous levels. Since the global amount of fossil fuel emissions is still increasing by about two and a half percent per year, despite the rapidly slowing rate of increase, since the world leaders and industrialists still seems intent on basically doing business as usual, our precarious circumstance only becomes more dire by the day. The good news is that many of the world's cities are breathing claner air as internal combustion engines are rapidly being replaced by Electric Vehicles. The bad news is that rapid as the conversion to solar and wind energy is, as many E.V.s as are already on the road, the billionaires and millionaires who make the decisions in the fossil fuel businesses are fighting tooth and nail to retain teh current energy system as long as possible, until they can squeeze every last dollar out of it before reluctantly abandoning it. One thing these dicisions making coorporate executives know full well is that they and they people they care about will be long dead by the time the entire bill comes due, and mother nature on Earth, in Earth's ecosystem, falls deathly ill. Talking and writing about climate change and the death sentence it gives life on Earth will accomplish nothng. Only drastic,fundamental changes to our energy and economic systems will save us. In Ethiopia there is aproject ongong to plant one trillion trees. the actual number may be five trillion. It is estimated that there were "roughly" seven trillion trees on Earth at the dawn of humanity, and that we have cut down about half of them. Many of the saplings in Ethiopia are already in the ground, with thousands of workers planting more every day. Why not do this in every country in the world? Although we will not be able to tree plant our way out of the climate crisis, it is indeed one of the many measures which must be taken to reverse the decline and avoid the death of the ecesystem. People as individuals, all over the planet, can undertake similar projects. How many millions of Americans, for example, have plenty of room in their spacious, grassy lawns for a few trees? The dread of leaf raking is no excuse. When I planted doens of saplings in my yard, my mother told me that the day might come when I regretted it. Although I could see her points, the day never came, and seeminly never will. I love my forested front and back lawn, leaf covered and all. If you just leave leaves alone, they break down, and nourish the soil. And besides, any excuse to avoid yard work will do.