Trees. Growers of fruits, spices and nuts. Generators of shade. Home to birds, squirrels, koalas. Front line soldiers in the fight against climate
change? You bet! Today we’re doing something a little different
and talking about teamtrees.org’s mission of planting twenty million new trees by 2020,
where every donation of one dollar equals one tree. You might be asking yourself “what would
planting twenty million new trees do for the planet?” Let’s take a look at just how huge an impact
each donation to teamtrees will make! A wide variety of organisms from lichen to
bees to possums call trees home, and just one single mature oak tree can be home to
as many as 500 different species! The earth is rapidly losing species--we’re
in the middle of a mass extinction, and without trees for them to call home, many more animals
will be at risk for extinction. Many animals require trees as a place to live,
to feed, and to provide protection, so planting just one tree is like building a house, feeder,
and nursery all at once! Donating twenty dollars to plant twenty trees
is like building an entire animal city! Multiply that by a million and we’re talking
about a super metropolis of biodiverse animal life. Study after study shows that spending time
in a grove of trees or forest can provide emotional rejuvenation. It can improve your mood, creating a sense
of peace while reducing stress, depression and anger. The Japanese even have a word for this: Shirin-yoku,
or ‘forest bathing’. The effect of trees is not only emotional,
but physical; studies have shown that being among trees reduces blood pressure as well
as lessens stress-related hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. So basically, trees make you happy. Plenty of scientific research has shown that
happier people commit less crimes, especially violent ones. We think a grove of even just a few trees
would be pretty nice. Twenty million new trees would mean potentially
thousands of new groves, which means millions of people able to take regular forest baths,
increasing happiness and reducing crime. You’d be a regular crime fighter. All thanks to the trees you helped plant. Trees reduce air temperature through blocking
sunlight and creating shade. Trees also help to cool by reflecting heat
upwards from their leaves. Further cooling occurs when moisture evaporates
from the surface of leaves, just like the way your body cools down by sweating. Trees can cool down an area by a lot. And we’re not talking about just a couple
of degrees, urban neighborhoods with mature trees can be up to 11 degrees cooler in summer
heat than neighborhoods without trees. Just think about the difference between a
miserably hot 90 degree day and a warm, comfortable 79 degrees. Trees can also cool down buildings, limiting
the need for air conditioning which has the added benefit of helping to conserve energy. Studies have shown that shade from strategically
planted trees can reduce the air conditioning costs of buildings by 20% to 30%. Just think, if an average home has a cooling
power bill of around $100 per month in the summer, and if ten trees were planted around
that same house then 30% could be saved, then that means 20,000,000 trees planted around
homes could save $60,000,000 in energy costs! So if you can’t donate to this particular
cause, please consider planting a few new trees around your house. Not only will they be a beautiful addition,
but they might even save your future self some money on your power bill. Trees are ideal for use as sound barriers
because they reduce sound in two ways: First, they absorb sound since thick branches and
leaves are great at absorbing high frequency noise. Secondly, trees deflect sound. When a sound hits rigid material it bounces
back. When a sound hits flexible material such as
branches, the material vibrates and the sound is transformed into other forms of energy. A thick row of trees can block as much as
fifteen decibels of sound, that’s almost like wearing a pair of ear plugs but you have
something beautiful to look at instead of uncomfortable foam in your ears. The root systems of trees hold soil in place
during heavy rainstorms preventing erosion, flooding and mudslides, keeping people and
buildings safe. Trees improve water quality too; as their
root systems help to filter impurities and retain water in the soil. This allows for water tables to be recharged,
with less water ultimately ending up in sewers, and diminishing the amount of stormwater carrying
pollutants to the ocean. A single 100 foot tall tree can take as much
as 11,000 gallons of water out of the soil during its growing season, releasing the water
as healthy oxygen and clean water vapor. That means twenty million trees could filter
a staggering 220 billion gallons! That’s enough to fill more than 300,000
Olympic swimming pools! Humans inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide;
trees do exactly the opposite by absorbing and storing carbon dioxide during photosynthesis
which produces and releases oxygen as a by-product. Excess carbon dioxide is building up in our
atmosphere, strengthening the greenhouse effect, and contributing to global warming. The more trees the earth has, the more carbon
dioxide is absorbed and mitigated. The amount of oxygen produced by a tree depends
on several factors, including the species of tree, its health, and the ambient temperature. However some typical calculations are that
a single mature tree can absorb carbon dioxide at a rate of 48 pounds (21.77 kg) per year
and release enough oxygen back into the atmosphere to support two humans. One acre of trees annually consumes the same
amount of carbon dioxide equivalent to driving an average car for 26,000 miles (41,842 km). If we assume that an acre has roughly 300
trees, then twenty million new trees could consume the carbon dioxide equivalent of a
car driving over 1.7 BILLION miles annually! Last but not least, in addition to carbon
dioxide, trees absorb other potentially harmful pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide and carbon
monoxide. The canopies of trees act as a physical filter,
trapping particulates of dust, pollen, smoke and smog. A single mature tree removes up to 2.20 pounds
(1.7 kg) every year, which means twenty million could remove up to 44 million pounds. And that’s not all, studies have also shown
that the dust level in the air can be as much as 75% lower on the sheltered side of the
tree as compared to the windward side. No one, and we mean no one, likes dust in
the air. So do yourself and your neighbors a favor
and plant some trees, or donate a few dollars to teamtrees.org and clean the air for yourself
and generations to come. In July of 2019 a Swiss study stated that
if we plant enough trees we can stop, or at least put a serious dent in climate change,
which is why we’re committed to helping teamtrees.org mission to plant 20 million
new trees by 2020. The Infographics Show is getting involved
and you should too! Every donation of $1 equals a new tree planted,
so become part of something huge with real benefits, and show the world that the Youtube
community can come together and do something incredible. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and be part of the movement
to plant twenty million new trees by going to teamtrees.org! And if you can’t donate yourself, share
this and other videos and let’s get your mom, dad, aunt, best friend and everyone else
involved!
