The forests are vanishing, that’s no secret. Not just the rainforests, no, trees are cut down or burnt everywhere, which makes global warming even worse.
So what can we do? Plant new trees? Yes, okay. But that takes forever and is extremely expensive. And not every area where trees should grow is easy to reach. So what then?
How about …
Bombing the shit out of those pieces of land!
No, wait, that sounds largely ineffective. Bombing something to make trees grow?
It can actually be done. But the bombs in question aren’t your typical “I will fuck up everything you love” – bombs but … Seed bombs.
Seeds from local trees are encased in biodegradable metal (yes, according to the sources it does exist) and dropped out of C-130 transport aircrafts.
You know, those things that had been introduced to the military in the 1950’s to lay carpets of landmines, among other things. Now it’s supposed to drop cone-shaped containers that have everything a new seed needs to grow. Like fertilizer and some stuff that soaks up the water in the ground around it. @suesa
Pretty neat.
Using this technique, 100,000 seeds per flight can be dropped and about 70 percent of those actually grow up into beautiful trees. Not bad, in my opinion. And a lot quicker than planting them all from hand.
The whole process is called “aerial reforestation” and can not only be used to fight global warming but also to repair forests that have fallen victim to big fires or plant trees in regions that are barren.
Make trees, not war!
Sources:
Could military strategy win the war on global warming?
Aerial bombardment to reforest the earth
Reforestation efforts improving as 'seed bombing' initiative shells out 900,000 future trees per day
Pictures taken from pixabay.com
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Biodegradable metals?
For instance magnesium should both do the trick and not be biotoxic
I was too lazy to look into it in detail but magnesium sounds good ^^
You always write a very meaningful and useful post ,,, i like it
My parents actually met while tree-planting on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, so reforestation is near and dear to my heart for more reasons than just the environmental necessity of it.
So reforestation gave us you ? Cool!
Yep!
We could take this a step further. Why only seed bombs? Seed rifles, using seeds as ammunition. Seed cannons firing seeds in long distances. Seed land mines to wait for anyone to step on them and.. BOOM, kind of stepping in a forest.. in a slow forest.
Great post! Yeah we have to care for the earth now! I mean at the rate trees are cut down every day will definitely hamper us and eventually we will be the cause of our own destruction :(
Atleast we can plant a sapling individually. Not only on the 5th of june always. One small effort will lead to the betterment of the earth's current condition.
I am happy to inform you guys that recently one of our state planted 6 crore trees in a single day :)
Let the earth live healthy and so we will !
It would certainly be worth a try. I was employed as a student on some government spruce seeding trial, and I can't remember exactly how it worked out but seems to me that it was successful.
Nowadays, I'm a bit of a contradiction because I love trees, but I'm the guy out there in the forests making it possible for large corporations to cut it all down in a most efficient manner. Everything is replanted of course, but usually with a monoculture. Does make me wonder why aerial seeding isn't used more...
I love the monster.....and love this idea if it'll work. Have they tried it yet? Any good results? well thanks for the info....very interesting. :) Oh yeah - following you.......... ......
I like it that someone cares about the environment. Boosting science community here is a noble endeavor!
I advertised you in my last beer tasting post and sent people your way! I hope it gets you more clicks and upvotes! Also, I used you picture, but I can edit if you want!
Cheers!
Cool, thanks! And the picture use is alright, you should just credit @steemitadventure cause he drew it for my birthday!
This is very interesting! Reforestation is NOT NECESSARILY expensive though!! I have worked and done research in reforestation in communities of the Caribbean, where I don't think this would work since human population is usign land in survival mode.. I think the greatest implications are for western edge of the Sahara desert... But I still think a human followup component would make this the most powerful.
Dear @suesa great information. Reforestation is important because forests are natural effective carbon sink. so plants should be grown at huge level.
Is there enough land for major global reforestation projects? Should this approach be emphasized in reforestation plans to combat global warming?
To all of you who are into reforestation, check out this search machine: ECOSIA
They use their profit to plant trees. - Only my search requests of the last year (over 2.500) allowed them to plant roughly 56 new trees. :)
And also thanks to @suesa for this nice post. :)
Best,
mountain.phil28
Nice reminder. I used it in the past but gave up because they use Bing as search engine. For many specific search cases Google is still better. I would love to be less dependent on Google but they are the best for my usecase.
As all search engines ecosia grows, develops and also adapt to you as you use it longer. But yes: Google Scholar is superior.
I always wanted to invent a biodegradable seed bullet for air soft guns. That way, when little kids want to shoot at each other, flowers will bloom on the battlefield (instead of getting inundated with plastic scraps).
I must admit I have been rather mischevious in the past and have seed bombed patches of boring grass in the city or in areas where you feel a bit of diversity and wildlife would be preferred over manicured lawns... I have also heard of people seed bombing hemp outside of official buildings, including the police...
Reforestation is such an urgent need and given that monoculture is so widespread (where I come from they replaced long ago a lot of the native broad leaf trees such as oak, sweet chestnut, ash and hazel with eucalyptus because it provided fast growing lumber for the paper industry locally) I wonder if this would be a way to return diversity to hard to reach monocultivated areas. Alas it is never so easy and even mature woodlands require careful management to provide the adequate balance of species and biodiversity.... Good way to start in remore areas with no tree cover though... Anything is better than nothing at this point.
I agree! Except for that mature woodlands "require careful management". It really depends on context, but forests would/will do just fine after humans are gone. Crappy eucalyptus (some geniuses thought it would be great to plant in the Tropical caribbean, where I've worked with native species) would get a terrible pest or bacterial infection to wipe it out, and maximal health species would begin to flourish again.
The problem is, you can't just plant trees, you have to protect them too! New trees might grow but you have to protect them from humans AND animals. There are some reforestation projects that failed and nobody knew why until somebody noticed that some animals would eat up all the small growing trees. Sadly there is still some groundwork needed even though I like the idea from impregnating mother earth from above lol
Exactly! Its not sad though! Its an opportunity for sustainable development/employment of the people that need new relationship with trees for longterm survival.
That is a fun idea Suesa, unfortunately I have recently read an article that we reached a stage that no matter how many trees we plant, we cannot counter the CO2 levels, even if we plant the whole USA in trees. And then you still have people arguing against solar energy and clean energy!
We seriously need actions on all levels, or just move to Mars !
I concur! It's an important part of a much larger strategy. However in places like Haiti and Jamaica (where I've done agro-forestry tree planting work) its top priority due to subsistence farming.
Glad to hear about your efforts @peachbody , well done.
I had actually read about that some time ago. I am however curious to see the outcome on the long term. Planting trees in this way may be good, but does it actually work? Are trees actually growing as they should, forming nice forests? Are animals coming back too? etc...
I guess we can only wait and see. There's always hope.
Sadly, it seems like the project hasn't been pursued very actively as one of my sources is from 1999 ... (one is from 2016 so the project isn't dead yet but...yeah)
I agree that aerial reforestation is the way forward as it will contribute greatly to fighting the effect of global warming and deforestation. Nice one!! 👍
Actually taking care and preserving the environment is our responsibility both from the government and all levels of society.
so keep the cleanliness of every environment and surroundings. Because cleanliness, beauty and coolness is the desire of the whole society.
then with the attention and active role of all members of society is very important. lest we become people who damage the environment and that ecosystem can cause the extinction of all founa and flora by cutting down trees semding.
Very interesting story @suesa thanks a nice post
We can be in big trouble without our forests.
Trees convert carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen through a process called photosynthesis.
Basically, all living things on earth need oxygen to breathe and the forests carry a very important role in the complex global oxygen cycle.
Deforestation and forest degradation pose a threat to our air quality, and contribute up to 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
With the current volume of deforestation, no reforestation will help.
That is super not true. Reforestation won't solve all the problems, no, but it will certainly mitigate many of them. Putting no effort in at all to fix environmental problems is always going to turn out worse than careful, considered action.
But we can at least try, can't we? If we don't at least try it will only happen faster.
Incorrect. Lookup "vetivert" terracing and agro-forestry. In just 5-15 years, reforestation has repeatedly been proven to : bring back underground water sources in rural and mountain communities, restore regular rainfall, defeat desertification, etc.... AND JUST IN SMALL LAND AREAS! If reforestation corrects micro-climate, it can help correct global issues, especially in conjunction with everything else humans shoul be doing.
wow, really amazing with what you show, very good picture, I like with your post .. good luck,
First pic is so damn beautiful! Dope Shot!!!! Thanks for sharing my dear
Thanks it's a stock photo.
following you..... ......
as usual very informative article you write with amazing pictures and convey your message very well. last pic is very cool, with impressive message for all "Make trees, not war!. Thanks for sharing.
UPVOTE.
We should be thankful to all the trees out there who constantly provide us oxygen for free. Thank you TREES!
Great @suesa
Great idea, forests are the lungs of our earth, which is currently struggling to breath! 🌳🌲🌱🌲🌲🌳🌱🌿
Forests are lungs, and I'm a Forestry person.... But actually oceans provide MORE CO2 cycling!!
It's a unique technique.
good pic
img credz: pixabay.com
Nice, you got a $1.58 @minnowbooster upgoat, thanks to @reggaemuffin
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Great post.. @suesa
following you.... ......
great post @suesa! i never actually knew about seed bombing until i came across this post of yours! yeah we definitely need lots of trees right now as our world is already suffering with the global warming and all. we are slowly but surely destroying our own planet. raising awareness to the people around the world thru blogs like this can make a huge difference.
Great idea @suesa, 'Make trees, not war' is fantastic haha. Sadly, here at #ecoswell we're in the deserts of North Peru so the plants need all the monitoring and love they can get. Feel free to check out our blog to see how we plan to plant a forest in the desrt! #ecolife