Our solution is comprised of gathering seeds to plant several thousand trees. In addition our other solution is to report illegal logging, if there is any. We will likely look into organizations which are reforesting Maui. Maui doesn't face mass deforestation, however it has been deforested long ago and multiple organizations are working against the clock to reforest areas which faced severe deforestation. Therefore, we will work on reforestation efforts and plant many trees as possible in a given area, its similar to social media inspiration MrBeast, who planted 20 million trees in a given area. However this can be outruled and an alternative is to spread awareness via social media or posters. Using canva we will go @leewardhaleakala and participate in earth week for Maui.
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To break it down, forest protection protects the very carbon storages which is essential for combating climate change. If we cut down trees, the tree cannot absorb carbon dioxide and the carbon inside the tree is released into the atmosphere. If we encourage people through advertisements and enable laws for forest protection, more and more of those trees would retain their carbon absorbing ability and the carbon stored inside of the trees. Trees can absorb up to 200 gigatons of CO2 which is 2/3 of all human carbon emissions in the last 150 years (Rainforest Alliance, 2019). Protecting rainforests have a greater outcome on the environment than protecting regular forests. Rainforests are mainly known for their wet, swampy properties. This is because rainforests absorb far more carbon dioxide and cause more water to evaporate. These clouds then reflect the sunlight back into space (Rainforest Alliance, 2019). This is one of the main reasons the Rainforest Alliance has abstained from cutting down trees in rainforest areas and has promoted sustainable farming techniques. Rainforests also prevent drought through the vast amount of rainfall. Therefore, it is imperative to protect the forests, especially rainforests because they play a key role in helping battle climate change.
This could be implemented to Maui by people coming together to devise a long shot plan to protect Maui's forestry. This can also be implemented through spreading awareness and encouraging legislators to pass bills to strictly prohibit the action of cutting down of trees in places such as reserves. Since most people are already aware of deforestation, we can use advertisements to our advantage. Instead of encouraging the viewer to live large, we can persuade the viewer with key elements such as facts and "shock therapy". This is likely already happening by organizations like Maui Botanical Garden, which protects native flora in such regions. Another instance of organizations implementing forest reserve is citizens of Bhutan planting 108,000 trees in favour for their new prince (Slavikova, 2021). Meanwhile in Costa Rica, organizations revived a perhaps doomed rainforest in the same timeframe. This means this can be implemented well in a human life-time. This can also be implemented on a personal level like not burning log wood and not using palm oil (Slavikova, 2021).
Forest protection can mitigate climate change by sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere. Since we know trees are known to be a carbon sink, trees restore the balance from animals and other emissions from carbon sources. Rainforests are also proved to be better at sequestering CO2 than normal forests do. Therefore, forest protection can mitigate climate change by absorbing CO2 from the air and better yet, have the ability to trap in more CO2 than you think. The United States has 766 million acres of forestry, which has the capability of sequestering 16% of annual emissions yearly. This covers about a third of the United States' total landmass. The more live trees there are, the better. Research shows live trees have a greater ability to absorb CO2 than their dead counterparts. THe united states accounts for only 5% of the world population, but claims up to 30% of the worlds paper (Conserve, 2020) It will take as little as 78 years for all the forests to be gone (The World Counts, 2021). Therefore, this needs to be put to an end as soon as humanly possible.
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