The Latest

Ethiopians Planted 350 Million Trees In 12 Hours & It’s Exactly The Green Energy We Need!

byAkanksha Agarwal
30th July 2019
2 minute read

The climate crisis is well and truly upon us. And there is only one way to tackle it – planting trees! Earlier this month, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology released the findings of their study on climate change. Their research on restoring forests to reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere showed that if we plant 1 trillion trees on Earth, we could say goodbye to global warming.

Understanding the importance of trees, the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has initiated the Green Legacy project in the African country. Their goal is to plant 4 billion trees this summer and every citizen has been called upon to do their part and plant a minimum of 40 seedlings.

On 29 July, the country invited everyone to work together and plant 200 million trees in 12 hours. At the end of the day, Ethiopia’s minister of innovation and technology, Dr Getahun Mekuria, revealed that they had surpassed the goal by a huge margin. Over 350 million seedlings were planted creating a new world record!

According to CNN, the country’s forest cover had depleted over the years due to which it faced land degradation, soil erosion, recurrent droughts and flooding. To combat these issues, the government even declared a holiday on 29 July so that civil servants too could participate in the Green Legacy initiative.

According to The Guardian, the previous world record for most trees planted in one day was created by India. Our very own desi volunteers planted over 50 million trees in the year 2016.

We think it is time for us to unite, plant even more saplings and get our world record back! Because if we don’t, coastal cities like Mumbai could very well drown by 2050.

Cover Image Source – left, right

📣 Storypick is now on Telegram! Click here to join our channel (@storypick) and never miss another great story.