Let’s Just Plant A Trillion Trees
Why stop emitting when we can just plant a bunch of trees?
Corrections
Felix Finkbeiner was 13 years old when he spoke at the United Nations, not 12.
The industry that has currently contributed the most to Rep. Bruce Westerman’s career campaigns for federal congress is the Forestry & Forest Products industry, as reported by Open Secrets. The Oil & Gas industry is listed as #2.
Sources & Citations
MrBeast. (2019). Planting 20,000,000 Trees, My Biggest Project Ever! YouTube.
Charmin. (2022, January 31). Protect Grow Restore | Charmin® Loves Trees. YouTube.
Jordan, A., Vinyard, S., & Skene, J. (2024). Issue with the Tissue. NRDC.
Christophersen, T. (n.d.). The Climate Leadership That Inspires Me: Felix Finkbeiner. UNEP.
Plant-for-the-Planet – Trillion Trees for Climate Justice. (2024). Plant-For-The-Planet.
Guarino, B. (2020, January 22). The audacious effort to reforest the planet. Washington Post.
Rep. Buddy Carter - Georgia (District 01). (2024). Open Secrets.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy - California (District 23). (2024). Open Secrets.
Rep. Clay Higgins - Louisiana (District 03). (2024). Open Secrets.
Rep. Bruce Westerman - Arkansas (District 04). (2024). Open Secrets.
Actions - H.R.2639 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Trillion Trees Act. (n.d.). Congress.gov.
2023 National ECongress.govnvironmental Scorecard. (2023). League of Conservation Voters.
Heal, A. (2023, April 11). The illusion of a trillion trees. The Financial Times Limited.
Anderson, T. R., Hawkins, E., & Jones, P. D. (2016). CO2, the greenhouse effect and global warming: from the pioneering work of Arrhenius and Callendar to today’s Earth System Models. Endeavour, 40(3), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.endeavour.2016.07.002
Viani, R. A. G., Bracale, H., & Taffarello, D. (2019). Lessons Learned from the Water Producer Project in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil. Forests, 10(11), 1031. https://doi.org/10.3390/f10111031
TED-Ed. (2023, December 19). Does planting trees actually cool the planet? - Carolyn Beans. YouTube.
Buller, A. (2022). The Value of a Whale. Manchester University Press.
No Watermark Clips. (2019, May 21). King of the Hill on Carbon Offsets. YouTube.
What’s the potential of a trillion trees? (2020). Crowther Lab.
Fleischman, F., Basant, S., Chhatre, A., Coleman, E. A., Fischer, H. W., Gupta, D., Güneralp, B., Kashwan, P., Khatri, D., Muscarella, R., Powers, J. S., Ramprasad, V., Rana, P., Solorzano, C. R., & Veldman, J. W. (2020). Pitfalls of Tree Planting Show Why We Need People-Centered Natural Climate Solutions. BioScience, 70(11). https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaa094
Oglesby, C. (2021, Feb 9). Republicans want to plant 1 trillion trees — and then log them. Grist
Episode Credits
Created by: Rollie Williams, Nicole Conlan & Ben Boult
Hosts: Rollie Williams & Nicole Conlan
Executive Producer: Ben Boult
Post-Production: Jubilaria Media
Researchers: Carly Rizzuto, Canute Haroldson & James Crugnale
Art: Jordan Doll
Music: Tony Domenick
Special thanks: The Civil Liberties Defense Center, Shelley Vinyard & The Natural Resources Defense Council, Angeline Robertson & Stand.Earth
Copyright Climate Town 2025. All rights reserved.