Building the Great Green Wall

THE GREAT WALL of China, visible from outer space, is listed as one of the great wonders of the ancient world, and the modern world as well. This, despite General George S. Patton's admonition that fixed fortifications are monuments to the stupidity of man. Monuments to that are a dime a dozen, like monuments to Christpher Wren in London. Now, the ever innovative Chinese are taking innovation a step further. They are in the process of planting a "Great Green Wall of China" to parallel and border the brick and mortar one. It is estimated that for this purpose approximately sixty six billion trees are being and will be planted. Whether they are saplings, seedlings, or transplanted mature trees remains unconformed; possibly some of all the above. The Chinese were achieving greatness when Europe was a primitive backwater mud puddle, thatched huts and tiny filthy towns. Desite communism's best efforts to stifle creative, innovative engenuity, China is still hard at it, a proud dragon, her inventive people untamed and unbowed. Often mentioned on this website is that scientists estimate that the planet harbored roughly seven trillion trees at the dawn of recorded human history, but that human "civilization" has, in the name of "progress', reduced that number by more than half, and counting. Ten billion trees each year are bing harvested for wood, paper, and agriculture. Most famously, the Amazon rain forest of Brazil, which used to be called "jungle", is vanishing at the rate of hundreds of acres of harvested trees daily. for humanity, the United States of Avarice, to conquer its long standing addiction to Grade A sirloin beef steak would greatly help in solving the problem. It would at least be a healthy start. Instead of chopping down forests to use the land for growing feed grain and grazing cattle, why not serve the grain to people? Cut out the "mmiddle man", so to speak. A diet of grain, fruits, and vegetables is the healthiet, we know. Also, nuts and berries, the "gorilla" diet. Reverse the deforestaion curse. Stop extracting the lungs of the Earth from the body of the living planet, Gaia. Give all plants and animals a chance to first exist, then, to thrive. The only thing at stake, the only thing we have to lose, is the Earth's ecosystem, and all life on Earth, including our decidedly unnecessary, demonstrably self destructive, indisputably vain and shortsighted selves, yours truly, home sapien sapiens. An ancient Hindu scripture says "Man is a creature who lives by faith, and whatsoever is the faith, also is the man." We must first have faith, if unsubstantied by empirical fact, that we the human species is a blessing rather than a curse to Gaia, worthy of our prsence here. And that we can become a blessing rather than a curse on Earth. We must prove Goethe right when he said: "Noble be man, compassionate and good." But we cannot possbly do that by injecting thirty billion tons of industrial waste product carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually, with the total nearly one trillion atmospheric metric tons. Among all the sounding alrams of our impending self destructive doom there are hopeful signs. Our awareness of our plight and that of the planet which perhaps reluctantly owns us, despite climate change deniers and corporate, cultural material greed, is growing fast. The Great Green Wall is not only a very tangible step forward towards planetary and human renewel,it symbolizes our determination to endure, survive, and proceed in our evolution toward a higher form of life. That we have long way to go reminds us that we have come far, and can and must go farther still.