Amos White and 10K Trees

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Amos and I talk trees and he breaks down how we can help save our environment and ourselves by planting trees. 

https://www.100ktrees4humanity.com/

Summary/Time Stamps: 

• How did you get involved in trees? 0:00
  • Welcome to the duckling reality world.
  • Amos is passionate about trees.
  • Sugar maple in columbus, ohio.
  • The story of the first seedling.
• The story of the tornado tree. 3:08
  • The story of the tornado tree.
  • Trees have always been part of her life.
  • The hurricane in Puerto Rico.
  • Climate change is the single largest driver of capitalism.
• What is climate change like? 9:15
  • The number one killer in climate is urban heat.
  • The global strike for climate in 2019.
  • Climate change and climate anxiety.
  • Putting a tree in everyone's hand.
  • Dopamine and oxytocin have a motivational and healing effect.
  • One tree at a time, at scale.
• Rinse and repeat. 15:46
  • There is no planet B until 2032.
  • 100k trees for humanity, a neurobiological theory of change.
  • Cool phenomenon of volunteers getting halfway through a hole.
  • Dopamine effect.
  • Nothing is ever simple.
  • One tree at a time, one person, one tree.
• How many trees per person per day? 21:20
  • Scientists give us till 2030 to plant 1 trillion trees.
  • Trees per person per day.
  • The 80/20 rule in operation and why it happens.
  • West oakland and Fremont.
  • Climate emergency declaration in the city of alameda.
  • One new tree per capita resident.
• We have to center nature first. 27:28
  • We have to center nature first.
  • How standing rock got its name.
• Planting 100,000 trees per urban community. 29:32
  • Planting 100,000 trees per urban community.
  • Planting trees per 75,000 people.
  • 1200 trees a month, 1190 trees a week.
  • How many trees per hour.
• Why are you chasing philosophy when you already have the answer? 34:37
  • Government is not throwing money at climate change.
  • Climate anxiety is still on the rise.
  • Planting a tree is the most important thing to do now.
  • Trees provide ecosystem services.
  • Evapo transpiration and microclimates in the bay area.
  • The microclimate in the Bay area.
• Trees can lower temperatures by absorbing heat. 41:16
  • 400 gallons of water a day from ground water.
  • Latent heat and climate change.
  • Trees can lower urban heat temperatures 60 to 90 degrees.
  • Trees reduce air pollution.
• What do trees do for our health? 45:49
  • Trees are the most treat communities.
  • The wealthiest zip codes have better health indicators.
  • The ashland area has the highest teenage maternal mortal

Episode Transcript

Siobhan (00:00):
Welcome to the duckling reality world Amos. Today we're

(00:03):
hanging out with Amos, who ispassionate about trees. Yeah,
we're rolling. We can take apause, we can restart it. Oh, do
you have any questions? Yeah, soum, what I want to do is just
talk to you, we got intoconversation, and I'm not even
sure how you got so into trees.
But you are passionate about thetrees on the island. And I know
you have a background that ismuch more versatile than that.

(00:27):
accomplished, but, you know,that's kind of your current
focus.

Unknown (00:33):
Well, it's yeah, it comes from it has nothing to do
with trees, but it's for twothings. One, yeah. Whether or
not I've been in trees quote fora long time or two, is it also
just a result of a puzzle, astrategy? And the answer is
both. So no, I haven't been intrees a long time. But yes, even

(00:57):
in looking back at it, it's likewhen I look at my own life, some
of the most defining moments didpop out like people asked, you
know, like, when did you getinvolved in trees? And it's
like, who the frick knows, butthen yeah, I can tell you the
story of the very first seedlingI planted seed, I planted sugar
maple in Columbus, Ohio, at ourchurch, First Congregational

(01:19):
Church when they had a littleRugrats we were all lined up
holding hands walking out aroundthe church block across the
street, right next door,literally, it's one lane
driveway across the street. And,and walking around the Columbus
Museum. And it was the periodmust have been February or when
all the seedlings are March falloff the maple trees, and they

(01:40):
fall down and they spin and theylook like we call them
helicopters. So we used to callthem helicopter trees not
knowing you know, species oranything. When you're three or
four years old. I think we werefour years old, four or five
years old. And and so we tookthose back, and they let them
dry out and in the window. Andthen we planted them in the
corrugated egg cartons. So thelittle calf cup of an egg carton

(02:04):
you planted in that they putlittle teaspoon of soil and
there we planted it. And ofcourse being regrets you forget
about it at that age, I mean,literally 10 seconds and it's
gone. And then that Easter, Iremember going out the door of
church and there's a handputting right this in front of
your face. Your seedling hadgrown, and there's a sprig. And

(02:25):
so it's like, wow, that happenedin Yeah, I planted that behind
our behind beside our homegarage. And a maple tree is the
result of that now my parentshave moved from that house or we
moved to that or they're 20years later, after I graduated
from college and are actually Igraduated from high school and
college out of that out of thathouse. And, and that's pretty

(02:52):
much my connection to wait, Idid that. And that's a sense of
place. And that's a sense oftime in my lifetime,
historically, so to speak. Youknow, you did that when, and
that's not what how I got intoit. But I can remember that
definitively. I can tell you thestory of of two other stories

(03:12):
one of the tornado tree, as wecall it, I was just back in
Columbus this past weekend at mydaughter was there. You know,
we're here in Alameda, where welive now. But we literally flew
back there for the first timesince pandemic, I didn't want to
be around my mom just because Ididn't want to be a person who
gave her COVID after somebodygives it to me in the airplane.
I've been you know, panickedabout that. But I finally flew

(03:35):
back and got to see here and seethe family but drove back
through the old hood where herhouse was. And sure enough, it's
all still there. But I drovepast this one house, which is
Jason tars on a corner there.
And it it was the tornado treenow it must be 120 foot tall
pine tree. Wow. And every timethe skies got dark and broody,
and we knew that there was atornado warning, watch for our

(03:58):
area in the winds kicked up, allthe kids would secretly call
each other on the phone and keygroup of kids like 10 of us from
three different blocks. And wewould all gather at the tornado
tree and climb up the tree. Andand the question was, who had
the guts, or the something elsebut who had the guts to hang on

(04:19):
in the wind as high as youcould? As long as you could?
Until the tornado sirens cameon, which means you get it and
that was the whole thing. Sowhile it was Yeah, but it wasn't
dangerous, but it's like youknow, what can you do when
you're a kid you know, andthat's what it was, you know,
wasn't a screens back then. Itwas either television or that or

(04:42):
playing ball in the streets. Butyeah, that tree still there are
tornado tree. And then so that'sone way of you know, have trees
always been in my life and I canpoint to those things about a
tree and those memories areindelible but it's not like
yeah, a tree fell in ourbackyard once it It's like, we
are nature and we are part ofnature. And when it comes to a

(05:02):
tree or planting something, yourbrain innately remembers that it
is indelible for some reason.
And that's my personalconnection to the other side is
not a three person so to speak,this literally just happened as

(05:24):
a strategy. Once 45, thatadministration prior to Biden's
administration, 45 pulled us outof the Paris agreement. And I
was like, eff No, not on mywatch. Seriously, not on my
watch. I mean, I was a campaignorganizer for years political
organizer, community activist,yada, you know, but I was at the

(05:45):
time a marketing consultant,here in Silicon Valley and in
the Bay Area. And I literallyjust pivoted my entire life,
once that happened, because Icould see the end game, right.
And a lot of people didn't makethe connections. Everything else
was a distraction to get to thatpoint, attack on women, the

(06:08):
attack on blacks tag on peoplefrom countries where
predominantly black tag on gays,to me, it's like, Wait, all
these disparate dots, what's thethrough line? And people like
conservatism's Like no, no, no.
And it came down to when thehurricane hit Puerto Rico and
wiped out pretty much, you know,so much of a protectorate of our

(06:31):
country, basically a state, ourpeople, right, and, but
predominantly, people of color.
And when he went down there, andthe only image that we all saw
was 45, in this small looks likea warehouse closet, with like,

(06:54):
16 people all like cheering forhim, and and he's throwing paper
towels at them. Yeah. And I waslike, wait, what, but I'm a
poet, as well. And everything inpolitics is symbolic, especially
for a photo opportunity photoop. In the paper towels, when

(07:15):
you think of it, it's not likehe was handing out in a gesture
of empathy, care leadership. Asa president, or as we say,
presidential, who literally isfeeding the troops, or handing
out blankets to those who havebeen severely impacted, or just

(07:37):
holding a baby or hugging afather who's lost something, or
just sitting with people. He wasthrowing an article that was
disposable. One that has to beused by the user, therefore,
you're going to clean up thisyourself.

Siobhan (08:00):
And then there were all the evidence of cleaning it up
away, like it never happened.

Unknown (08:04):
And there's nothing about resources to sustain them.
It was just you're going toclean it up. But that was
symbolic. To me saying that wasa signal to everybody from a
capitalistic standpoint. We'regonna sell them everything they
need for to, for them to get outof their own misery. To find
comfort, food, shelter, it meanteverything was nothing was being

(08:29):
given to them. And so ensureenough, you know, the water that
never got distributed, or wasthere but it was never given to
them. After they left, someonefound a hole literally supply of
just crates, not crates, what doyou call it? Yeah, crates or
pallets full of those bottles ofwater. And it didn't break my

(08:52):
heart as much as it wasemblematic of that relationship
of that administration, with ourown peoples or with any peoples.
And so that really made me thatshowed me that which I did know
climate was the single largestdriver of capitalism. It would

(09:15):
be into the future in terms ofclimate impacts. It's not sea
level rise. number one killer inclimate is urban heat. number
one killer worldwide urban heat,due to both lack of trees and
the fact that climate is out ofwhack, you know, prolonged heat
days, unreal, unreal,unfathomable, over 100 degrees.

(09:36):
And so, when we look at that, tome, that was a sign that I
really felt compelled to come upwith a simple strategy. And when
I saw him take us out of ParisAgreement, I literally kind of
brooded over it and then what'sher name happened that year in

(09:59):
20 19 Greta Thunberg schoolstrike for climate started the
August before in August 2018. orsomewhere around there, July,
August. And then in 2019, shecall for a global strike for
climate in August or September19 through the 21st. worldwide.
And you know, I help supportkids from high schools to leave

(10:21):
high schools. Any that did wechaperone, shall we say? Yeah,
over to San Francisco. And itwas an amazing, amazing, just
show of support and kids who gotit, right. This is going to be
their future. And after that, Ihad read this article either in
gris magazine 17. Yes, magazine,one of those far left, you know,

(10:45):
magazines, and just someclickbait title, the world's
gonna get a lot hotter. Here'show you can survive it. And I
was like, Oh my god. Really? Youguys just put that title out
there. So I read it anyway. But,um, but it was Katharine Hayhoe,
Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, who hadled the US in the National

(11:05):
Climate Assessment for overeight years, and got the
Pentagon to declare that climateis the number one national
security threat, not Russia, notChina, not internet trolls. Not
a meteoroid is going to hit usand wipe us out. Climate climate

(11:26):
change, specifically back inlike 2012. And I was like, wait,
what? How can we haven't changedour budgets, completely
decarbonize everything, all ourdecision making everything? And
the answer is we hadn't. But whyisn't anybody talking about it?
And I read that article, but itreally impression me to really
start thinking about what I cando to impact both climate

(11:49):
anxiety on peoples who felt, ohmy God, I need to do something,
but nobody knew what to do. Andit literally hit me one morning.
And I'm like, you know, what isone thing that you can do that
you have a sense of agency, overthat makes you feel good? That
you can do and I kept, you know,repeating that and thinking over

(12:09):
right then this little tree inmy mind's eye popped in my hand
that that tired little metaphorof a little handful of dirt with
a seedling popping out of itlike a pine tree, literally, my
mind's eye popped into my hand,and I was like, You're kidding
me? Literally, I was freakedout. But it's like, what? It was
that palpable, right? And that'swhen I knew it's like, of

(12:31):
course, it's sitting right infront of us. The greatest
strategies in life, the greateststrategies in universe are, are
right in front of us to thesimplest things, right? And
that's when I decided I want toput a tree in every person's
hand. It's no more the articleinvolved in that has to do with
neuroscience and NarrativeTherapy. It's what it's all

(12:53):
about. How do you? How dopsychologists and psychiatrists
get a severely depressed person,you know, what's their role to
heal themselves? Okay, and aboutit's about brainwaves and
brainwaves, but you know, thebrain and healing the brain and
gates that are closed and gatesthat need to be open and how you

(13:13):
perceive the world as negativeand threatening and brooding
versus how does a healthier mindand person do that? And what is
the process to that narrativetherapy or talk therapy or
otherwise called couch therapyis what psychiatrists
psychologists, you know, talkyou through, it actually

(13:33):
releases hormones, you know,endorphins in the brain are
hormones of dopamine oroxytocin. And those are, those
are, have a both a motivationaleffect and a healing effect.
Oxytocin is the love hormone orfeeling loved by something or
love for something or empathy,so to speak, right? deep empathy

(13:54):
and or dopamine, which is thepleasure hormone as we know it
feeling liked by something orpleased or pleasured or feeling
good about or for something. Butdopamine has a hook and
addictive component. So it'slike, oh, you liked that scoop
of ice cream or the third scoopof ice cream or that empty pint

(14:14):
now, ice cream, right? It's notthat you really liked the ice
cream. That's the dopaminekicking in, it makes you just
keep eating the addictivecomponent. So people really
think they have choices. That'syour that's chemistry. That's
your chemistry kicking in yourneurobiology. But the same
thing, whether you're flying akite, riding a bike, playing

(14:35):
with a ball, holding a baby, orplanting a tree. So it's
healing. It has the sameaddictive component once the one
thing doing one thing where youhave agency over it, and then
talking about that, and thenrinse and repeat, actually
heals, nature heals. And so Iknew that and I read that in

(14:59):
that article. I'd no I didn'tknow that I read that in that
article that that yes magazinegris magazine or whatever it
was, and and right then afterthat tree popped in my head that
one Sunday morning I decided,yeah, I want to plant the
planet, one tree at a time, oneperson at a time, but at scale.
And so this journey since thatOctober of 2019, when we first

(15:25):
launched to today is is is allabout that. People call it a
project or your your, you know,your three words I say I hate I
hate hearing project or productor I forget what the other one
is. But it's this is a mission.
There is no planet B. These arenot means we only have until

(15:48):
2032 Not just get it right, getit done. Get all these natural
investments or nature basedinvestments. I'm sitting here
looking at your living greenwall that you have fake I know
but it's still he was living No.

(16:10):
But you think it's it's it'sstill having the same neuro
neuro neurobiological effect,why it's called biophilia, which
is just the human for a human tosee green or be surrounded by
green or sitting amongst green,or trees or lush plants or
looking at it like a moss wallor living wall reduces the

(16:34):
diastolic rate of the bloodpressure in 15 to 20 minutes
back to normal.

Siobhan (16:44):
That's insane. No,

Unknown (16:47):
that's nature. We are nature, we've never been apart
from nature, we like to think weare which is how we got so
screwed up to begin with. Right.
So by centering nature, betweensocial justice and racial
justice, that is the frameworkfor my organization, 100k trees

(17:11):
for humanity. It's literallyunderstanding the
neurobiological theory ofchange, which is we need to
surround ourselves with trees atscale for us to heal as a people
spiritually, socially,nationally, individually, right.
And to that, quote, rinse andrepeat is to share that story

(17:37):
with others. And invite them toplant trees with you because it
is addictive. It's awesome. It'sa cool phenomena to watch
volunteers, but they get halfwayinto a hole they're digging.
I'll go I go Hold, hold, hold ahole and talk to every volunteer
every single planting. How's itgone? What does it need? Hey,
you really want to hold a shovellike that? You'd be surprised.

(18:00):
It's something that kids kidshave never held shovels. Yeah,
kids have never held a shovel intheir life. And some adults do.
Right? You know, we're living innot exactly a city, but you
know, never held a shovel. Andso digging is a it's a new
thing. But the real thing isgetting halfway through a hole
and somebody saying, So when'sthe next tree planting? It's
like you did?

Siobhan (18:21):
Let's finish this one.

Unknown (18:23):
Let's get the you don't even have your tree out. Yet.
It's a cool phenomena to watchhappen. That's the dopamine
talking and it's so cool. Orthat they either said when's the
next tree planting? Or they say,Can we get another tree? And
usually it's that one. It'slike, Hey, can we get a second

(18:43):
tree? And you don't even havethe whole for the first one yet?
Or when's the next planting? Andit's like, yeah, just go sign
up. And people will literallyleave their whole go sign up.
But I love the phenomena. Andthat's when I first saw the
phenomena kick in at our veryfirst tree planting like October
2020, during the pandemic duringa smoke emergency here in

(19:04):
Northern California, but it wasweird, but when I realized what
was happening, I realized thatwas the article No, that was the
dopamine effect of feelingpleased. But the brain knowing
right, it is literally this is apleasurable thing. For one
reason or another and I want togo do it again. And but having

(19:28):
watching people, audible eyesthat right. That's amazing. It
was so cool. It was so cool. Soyeah, long winded answer to but
nothing's ever simple, because Ireally do believe it's in the
context of the narrative of thenatural processes, of which we
are a part of that we need toshare. We really do need to look

(19:51):
at how we can look at theimperative of how do we cool the
planet below one point Fivedegrees Celsius. According to
the UN scientists, by 2030, wenow have six years, six months,

(20:13):
and 23 days, as of today,2020 25 days, as of today, to
get in America. 68 billion treesin the ground in the world, 1
trillion trees. Wow. It's

Siobhan (20:29):
like that's not actually because of the amount
of people in the world. Like,you save everyone plants a tree,
then it's nothing that's aSunday afternoon of getting this
planet.

Unknown (20:40):
People like how can you plant a trillion tree? Well,
let's, let's talk about that.
Okay, well, let's talk aboutthat today. Okay, right. But it
doesn't

Siobhan (20:46):
seem in theory, it seems like such a wild idea.

Unknown (20:50):
Oh, there's no such thing. There's no their dreams
there. I mean, theorize note,this is simple math. Yeah. One
tree up here to plant theplanet, one tree at a time,
which means one person at atime, give you a tree, your
healing, right? Be Your likehealing towards what's I don't

(21:11):
need to why she's gonna plantanother tree. I don't have to
ask, right, I need to walk away.
I just need to put a tree inyour hand and walk away. My job
is done. How many other peoplecan we do that too? Now, what's
the math? So scientists give ustill 2030 to plant 1 trillion
trees in order to pull the theamount of carbon and sequester

(21:33):
it out of the atmosphere andactually to restore the climate,
which is where climate comesfrom? over 60 plus percent come
from the evaporation of waterfrom the ground by trees and
plants, Flora. So it's calledoverland mass overland mass
worldwide. And so excuse me. Solet's look at the math real

(21:53):
quick. And the answer. I'm goingto tell you how many trees per
person per day. Okay, okay. On amanaged sense. In other words,
if we actually just Alright, saywe all didn't just plant a tree.
But we hired people to do thisfor six years, six months and 25
days. Thank you. Date, butnotice that's a number. Right.
Right. Right. So we know that'show many years and days right,

(22:14):
right? How many treats does ittake? So I did the math. And so
in America, we need to plant 68billion trees. But we only have
enough nurseries and gardencenters, the things that grow
the seedlings and give it eitherto foresters or they send it to
like local nurseries who in turnresell them to us. And so we'll

(22:37):
have something like 1700 andchange nurseries and garden
centers nationwide, they grow1.2 5 billion seedlings a year
1.2 5 billion. We have six yearsthat literally comes up to
approximately 9.1 billion or1.25 1.3. It's about 9.1 billion
trees there are only going toonly going to grow between now

(23:01):
and December 31 2029. So 68billion. How do you plant that?
Well, for us, we know for theurban context, the goal is to
get every urban city nationwide,up to 30% tree canopy by 2030.

(23:22):
So how many trees does that takeper Urban Canopy on average per
75,000 people? It takesapproximately 100,000 Trees
approximately Okay, and westudied a consultant report from
West Oaklyn of 2012. city ofAlameda of 2017 2018. Their

(23:45):
Climate Action Plan consultantwho said Alamy could sustain on
average one Nutri per capitaresident by 2030. We had 76,000
People were projected to be78,000 to 78 79,000 by 2030,
which approximately was 80,000people. And we read the city of
Fremont, which had a verysimilar metric. And I'm like,

(24:09):
wait a second, three disparatecities completely different, or
in areas. West Oakland is not acity. It's an area in the city
of Oakland, but they have 70,000people. But how can all three
reports say each one of theseareas end up being approximately
one Nutri per capita resident atabout 70 Plus almost 80,000
people? And I said boom, thePareto Principle 8020 rule.

(24:32):
What's that the 8020 rule peoplehave heard Oh, yeah, the 20
rule, the 8020 principle. WhatWhat I noticed in 2018, and
2018 2019, I was on 2017, Ijoined our local climate action
or environmental taskforce herein the city of Alameda called

(24:52):
Casa. And we were going overreports and looking at stuff and
we realize that on tree plantingand quoting nature based
investments and other things.
The city was consistentlyhitting. And it's kind of
interesting, but it is what itis 80% of goal on so many
different things, or we'refunding it at 80%. And it's like

(25:14):
20% was, you know, missing underfunding, like, right, just just
never hit goal. And it's like,okay, if you just sum it up,
it's the 8020 principle inoperation, it happens. But then
I noticed this happen with thereport, I'm like, wait a second,
if our consultants say, onaverage, we could sustain one
new tree per capita resident onaverage. And that February of

(25:39):
2019, our environmental TaskForce got our city council to
draft a resolution and pass itin record time, literally under
45 days, a climate emergencydeclaration, which declared what
is happening in the climateabove us and around us right now
as not normal. And thereforethis is state of emergency we

(26:04):
need to act on and it's calledthe climate emergency
declaration. Resolution, we passone here in the city of Alameda.
We passed it in the County ofAlameda, cities all over their
and the world, we're passingthese climate emergency
declarations to declare thatthis is an emergency so that
they can marshal resources torun them through their climate

(26:25):
action plans and begin to act ina an emergency way for climate
for the protection of the safetyand the health and welfare of
the residents and people in theplanet. And so I said, Look, if
we're in an emergency, we can'tafford to do average, if 80% on
a bell curve, bell curve, putyour fingers down to the ground
and then sweep your fingersupward to 12 o'clock. So

(26:47):
pointing down and six o'clockone o'clock, you sweep it up to
12 o'clock, 12 o'clock isaverage on a bell curve, and
then you would sweep it over tothe other side from 12 o'clock
all the way back over from 12345down to six, that would be the
high side of the average right?
And if average is 80,000 PeopleI said oh my gosh, that means we
probably could maximally sustain150 260,000 trees, but on

(27:11):
average one new tree per capitaresident, I said as this is a
climate emergency, we cannotafford to be average or do
anything average first for theplanet. Because we have to
center nature first. And welearned that from our native
brothers and sisters. Everybodyremembers Standing Rock, right

(27:32):
standing Robbo, rememberstanding rock, it's like no, no,
don't remember Standing Rock.
Remember the message of themessengers in Standing Rock, our
native brothers and sisters whoshowed us that and told us that
water is life in that air issacred, and that the forests

(27:57):
shall provide the bounty oflife. So as we steward them, so
as we steward them, we arestewards of the earth, and that
is the imbalance that has causedclimate change. We are not
stewarding the earth we'replundering it, we're exploiting

(28:19):
it, we're reaping it. We havedone everything but taking care
of the earth, the planet andnature within it. And that's the
imbalance that we're livingright now. And so how do we
restore that balance, we need tobecome the stewards again. And
so back to the numbers, so weknew that 68 billion, it's gonna

(28:45):
sound good. That's microphonehit. So 68 billion for 100,000
people, we're not going to do80,000. What we need to do is
add back in that other 20%,right, which is literally where
the name of our organizationcame from. We went from 80,000

(29:08):
trees, and I said, we cannotafford to be average, we're
going to kick back in that other20% for the planet. And so it's
20% for nature. So we became100,000 trees for humanity. And
that was our launch. In December2 of 2019. We declared we were

(29:29):
100k. Trees are humanity. Andwe're going to plant the planet.
On a city by city by bases100,000 trees, so we need
100,000 trees per urbancommunity approximately 75,000
people each in a neighborhood ifthere's more in your city great
but break it down. Per 75,000How many trees do you need total
for your city? To get youraverage tree canopy up from here

(29:52):
in California the average treecanopy I believe is 15%. We need
to get that up to 30% That'sfine. have, you know, 100,000
trees on that ratio basis? So ina year, or in that six year
period, how do we plan 100,000?
Trees? The answer is in if wejust made it seven years for the
sake of the math, since we're inApril, now we're in May now. But

(30:13):
add the first four years backfirst four months back on for a
seven year period, we need toplant 14,298. I memorized and
I'm not doing the math. I usedto be good, I'm nothing. But you
need to plant 14,298 trees ayear, a year for seven years to
get 100,000 trees. And peopleare like, Oh my gosh, yeah, it's

(30:36):
a lot of trees. Why the city ofAlameda here, this little island
city we live on that we'reinterviewing and right now
is currently exceeding itsprevious tree planting plan
before 27 to 18, this currentclimate action plan before they
were doing 200 trees a year andpeople were like, wow, that's a

(30:57):
lot of trees, to under maybe alot of trees. But if you're not
planting trees is a lot oftrees. But let's get to them.
Again, 200 trees a year, theyincreased it up to 300 trees a
year. Don't ask me if they'rehitting gold, or if they're
hitting 80%. All I can say isread the reports. But but so
that's 300 trees a year, thecity of Berkeley is planting 700

(31:20):
trees here and people like toBerkeley they're always
progressing with AR they'realways out ahead. Well, kinda
sometimes, but not always. Butthe planting 700 trees a year.
That seems like a lot of trees.
That's not enough. Then there'sthe city of Hayward. They're
planting? Well, on the books.
They're planting 1000 trees ayear. Hallo. Hayward. Yep. So

(31:44):
and then that wasn't They'veonly done for two years. 2021
they planted 1000 trees 2022.
They didn't hit their number.
They planted 2000 Oh, 100 plustrees. I was like, wait, what?
They're blowing that nobody evenheard that they were doing this.
And so I was like, Wow, 2000people like, wow, that's a lot.
It's like, well, let's look atthe math. If you're going to hit

(32:06):
100,000 trees, you need to beplanting 14,298 trees a year,
divided by how many months in ayear? 12. That's 1190 trees a
year. Let's just round it up to1200. So 1200 trees a year? Are
not a year, excuse me. 1200trees a month, a month divided

(32:27):
by 12? How do I know that?
Again, I'm remembering myslides. My math mind is not that
sharp to do the math that quick.
And that's 1200 trees a month1190 divided by four weeks in a
month. That's 300 trees a week,now, seven days or in a week.
But even if we just made it afive day workweek just from a

(32:51):
work standpoint, we know it's acrisis. But we're only going to
do it for five days a week. Howmany days? Or how many trees
does it take per day? And theanswer is five 300 divided by
five is 60 trees a day?

Siobhan (33:09):
And that seems doable.

Unknown (33:11):
doable? How many persons does it take to plant a
tree? Or how many trees can aperson plant? What we found out
over three years of plantingtrees now two years and two
years and seven months?
Volunteers plant one tree perhour religiously. If you've got
80 volunteers and you have 160trees, we know we're going to be

(33:33):
done in two hours flat. Andthat's it. We're done in two
hours. And it's the metric isit's it's awesome. We know
exactly. It's a 20 minute warmup introductions welcomes
donuts, coffee, you know you'reinto it and divide the number of
trees by volunteers. And that'show many hours is going to take
you we're done right on time.

(33:54):
Right. And then there's cleanupafter you're done right on time.
But that's volunteers. Now inour model, 100k tree, urban
Greenbelt initiative model. Whenyou hire people, we learned from
like the New York City milliontree campaign and friends of
friends of the urban forest inSan Francisco and Seattle's
group, a paid tree worker plantsthree trees per hour. Well, how

(34:20):
many trees per hour in an eighthour work day? Can you get in
the ground? And how many peopledoes it take to plant 60? Trees?
The answer is three. Threepeople, three trees per hour,
eight hour work day you can gohome even though we know it's a
crisis, right? But you don't seegovernment's throwing money at

(34:40):
this like we did with COVID I'mnot here to question that at
all. I am. No I'm not becausethat that becomes a recursive
problem or inaction

Siobhan (34:51):
of inaction then it becomes about the why and not

Unknown (34:55):
Why are you chasing philosophy when you already have
the answer? You're trying tosatisfy yourself for the fact
Take a look at what they're notdoing. I'm sorry, no. Here. In
the meantime, take this shoveland go plan and here's the
seedling. Right. Yeah, right.
Right. Yeah. Are you planningwith this this weekend? Yeah,
let's do it. We we went our nexttree planting June 3. All right,

Siobhan (35:13):
I can definitely do that. June 3.

Unknown (35:15):
Good. Good. See what see what I did. Yeah. Good. See
what I did? I did. Right? Right.
So you can always ask questionsall your life, right? At some
point, you got to pick up ashovel, or you got to pick up a
hose, and you got to just pointit, and you got to put out the
fire. And eventually, you'regoing to realize that you aren't
holding the hose by yourself.

(35:37):
And that somebody else literallyis leaning against your back.
Because the pressure of thathose is enormous. To put out a
fire, it is enormous. It is nota one person affair. And then
you're going to realize thatsomebody else is holding the
hose pushing against the personwho's pushing against your back.
And that is what we're in rightnow. Right? As Greta Thunberg

(35:58):
said, we have to act now as ifour house is on fire. Because it
is

Siobhan (36:04):
Why do you think so many people don't understand
this

Unknown (36:07):
people, everybody understands that. That's why we
have climate anxiety right now.
Just research climate anxiety.
And it's still on the rise. Andit's because people feel
hopeless, because they don'tfeel empowered to act, although
the answer is in potentially,the palm of their hands. So what

(36:29):
can you do right now get up,literally go to your store, buy
a $30 tree at home depot at OSH,outdoor supply hardware at ACE
at your local nursery, at a treestore. Buy it $30.50 $50 $70

(36:50):
Just by one tree and planted inyour yard six feet away from a
wall six feet away from afoundation or your neighbor's
property line because when itgrows, it's going to expand. But
the thing is plant a tree. Andthat is the most important thing
that anyone can do now for thenext six years. It's not self

(37:10):
serving my my my statement here.
This is existential. Literallyfor not to save the planet the
planet is going to live. Thequestion is, is it only going to
be 20% of us that do and whereand ain't going to be Mars?
Because we don't have that builtout. And ain't gonna be
underground again right now. Sothe thing is, before we get

(37:33):
there and before we pass thepoint of no return we're here to
help people plant the planet.

Siobhan (37:41):
Yeah, and you had an interesting the first time we
talked about this you explainedto me like and just I keep
thinking about how you say thehills or the trees are healing
like when you think aboutdriving down a tree lane road
versus driving down a not treelane road. Like the difference
in your drive like people willor your living space are your
living space. Yeah, right. Likeso why? Why is it that so many?

(38:04):
Is it just because of money thatso many plates like my apartment
complex? There's turf, we don'thave grass? It's strictly money,
is it? It's made, but it's it'sthat it's the trade off that

Unknown (38:16):
most people don't I mean, this is where I jumped to
my other slide. I usually jumpto a slide from the Nature
Conservancy. It's a brilliant,beautiful slide. It's a process
slide. But it shows trees havewhat are called we call
ecosystem services or benefits.
The services direct, you know,specific services like they
provide what do trees providefor us they provide. Shade is

(38:36):
the first thing everybody willtell you two different ways they
provide shade. Well, one biomassmeaning just their bodies block
the radiation of the sun. Byblocking the radiation of the
sun just like a hand does or awall does. What's on the
opposite side is cooler as aresult of not being in direct

(38:57):
path of that radiation. Treeshave one a shade effect, but
they also have a second coolingeffect. What we learn is called
climate, but it's it's calledevapo transpiration. So
basically, they suck water upfrom groundwater all day long.
Right? That's what trees do.

(39:19):
That's their their bio filters.
They filter water from theground and breathe it out into
the atmosphere as mist vapor.
And that literally becomes ourclimate, in the form of what's
called a micro climate. In theBay Area. We hear microclimates
most other places across me I'venever heard of a microclimate on

(39:40):
the news, but here in the BayArea, it's like well,
microclimate of this area, youknow, like raining and in Novato
and the North Bay and it couldbe like foggy over in Sausalito
Marin. It's always splotchy andfoggy down in, in San Francisco
and obviously in San Jose. It'slike burning and dry. But we
have all these different microclimates here because of our
topography. Right. But and youknow, everywhere all around the

(40:03):
world as I said before there arethese microclimates, the area
immediately above your areawhere you live, your geography
is your microclimate, and 60 66%It's 6663 I get my numbers
wrong, but it's right in there66% Of all of what sustains that
microclimate comes from thefloor below. Okay, in return 63%

(40:28):
of all local precipitation comesfrom the microclimate. Let me
repeat it again. Themicroclimates creation is a
result of the sum total of florabelow and the amount of evapo
transpiration that provides theestablishment of that micro
climate as opposed to the macroclimate which is called our like

(40:49):
our Jetstream the large watercycle versus the smaller cycle
and so. So, with thatmicroclimate, the more trees we
have indoor plant, the moremoisture right Are you starting
to see it? In other words, whatdrought right plant more trees

(41:15):
two examples. One thing first,again, the numbers. One mature
Coast Live Oak Tree. Shetranspires through
evapotranspiration transpiresthree to 500 gallons, which

(41:36):
means 400 gallons of water when,wow, when? In

Siobhan (41:43):
from the groundwater and one period. Oh, I don't. I
have no idea a year. Month. Ifeel like it's probably a year
but if you're so excited, it'sprobably way less. It can't be a
day. It can't be a week.

Unknown (41:59):
400 gallons a day. 400 gallons a day. 400 gallons a
day. That's a gallon every 32minutes. Wow. No climate. So
every time we feel second thing,there's shade. But that climate
that mist, you don't see it, youknow, there's little sprayers at

(42:21):
the grocery store right in thevegetable section. That's kind
of its micro, you know, likemicro dies water, right? It's
not the water that cools you.
It's the water hitting the airin it. If it pulls the heat,
it's called latent heat. We callit humidity but scientists call
it latent heat. So it pulls thatheat out of the air. The change
in temperature is experienced ascoolness Yeah. That process can

(42:42):
lower temperatures anywherebetween eight and 20 degrees.
Just from the water vapor. Yeah,another eight to 20 degrees.
That's huge versus the blockingof heat. Great study from Dr.
Janet hearten colleague of mineon our California CalFire board

(43:04):
urban forestry AdvisoryCommittee, Dr. Hart and with
their colleagues did a study inCoachella Valley, which we all
know for the Coachella Festival,but it's a desert y'all. I mean,
it's a hot desert, right?
Temperatures they put downastroturf there to keep it cool
that organizers and you say likeyou know there's no trees here

(43:27):
and your your patio area is holeopen areas vacuous. It's money,
but they thought they were beingeco conscious by putting down
astroturf where it'll be coolerthan the rock that was there.
But they weren't going to courtand trees but they put down
astroturf, the astroturf wasactually hotter. So it still
retains a lot of heat. What shedid was a study and they did put

(43:51):
up trees, and they realized andrealize they found from their
results. Trees can lowertemperatures 60 to 90 degrees,
or shade, shade. So look up Dr.
Janet Hardin, she's withUniversity of California ANR UC
ANR is her department that sheworks in. But it's not like it's
a brilliant study. It's the factthat somebody just studied it,

(44:14):
right? And the results are outthere. So trees save lives.
Okay, it reduces urban heattemperatures by absorbing the
radiation instead of having theasphalt absorb it and hold it
all day long and emit it slowlyback into the atmosphere all
night long, where you don't getrelief from the heat. And it
becomes oppressive and actuallycauses increases desiccation of

(44:37):
the land, which means drying outof the earth itself, because
it's just too hot. And so it'sevaporating that whatever
moisture is in the earth willevaporate. And so it's trees.
There are over 26 differentecosystem services. They create
shade. They create climate inthe environment. Trees create
oxygens to Bees filter withtheir bodies, their leaves,

(45:01):
their sticks, their twin twigsand stems, dust and micro
particles, ie air pollution,number one source of air
pollution, transportation andtransit, transportation and
transit nationwide. Okay 70% ofall of our air pollution from
that system from those sources,trees filter that the only trees
that actually suck out thevolatile organic compounds that

(45:26):
come off are like diesel fumesand and you know toxins and in
the air are conifers, your pine,your spruce, your cedars your
sequoias redwoods as you willthose actually absorb those
gases, therefore, the oxygenthey put off is pure. So they
actually filter the air. Yes.

(45:50):
And so I mean, it's excitingwhat trees do. Yeah, once you
learn all this, you know, we'veall heard these different
things. But when you tie it alltogether, it all comes down to
one thing a tree, right? Trees,the most treat communities. What
are your wealthiest communities.
And it's not because they canafford it. It's because the
other communities were actuallykept from having trees planted
their resources were kept fromplanting trees there, just

(46:13):
because the resources were allsent to the other neighborhoods.
Historically, over time, I madea great New York Times article
on that on the redlining ofcommunities and the relationship
of, quote, environmentaljustice. The relationship of
resources and the lack of citytrees, otherwise called street
trees in our black and browncommunities across the entire

(46:33):
nation, right. So when you lookat that there was a study in
2015. I think it was released in2016. Right here in Northern
California by the US Departmentof Agriculture, Forestry
Service. Greg McPherson was thelead researcher on that out of
Davis, and used KaiserPermanente as data. It was
scrubbed of private information,but they participated in this

(46:56):
study where they had all theirhealth information, run through
their study, and they found thatper zip code, the wealthiest zip
codes, the wealthiestcommunities had better health
indicators, and lower negativeindicators. And people were
like, well, yeah, they canafford for the food and you

(47:17):
know, they're organic, and theyjust have better lifestyles, and
it's like, no, all that is BS.
It strictly came down to onecorrelative factor, the number
of street trees, per that zipcode, and people are like, wait,
what it's like, yeah, cardiacdisease, right. Upper

(47:39):
respiratory disease, asthma.
chronic headaches, absenteeismat work. Absenteeism at school
was directly tied to the numberof trees or the absence of trees
in your community. Why treescreate oxygen. Here in the

(48:03):
world. We live in Alameda Countyin the Bay Area, San Francisco
Bay area, where we're sittingAlameda County, there's an
unincorporated area just dueeast of San Leandro do west of
Hayward called the Eden area.
And it's comprised of like fivedifferent areas, the San
Lorenzo, Ashland, cherryland,Castro Valley and Fairview and

(48:28):
the Fairview Fairview Heights, Ithink it's called. And in those
areas, the Ashlyn area it waspointed out to me or one of the
supervisors, Board ofSupervisors, staff here in
Alameda County. The Ashland areahas the highest teenage maternal
mortality rates. In the BayArea, I was like, Wait, why was

(48:53):
it not

Siobhan (48:53):
in there dying before they even get to childbirth,
which normally in this country,our maternal mortality rate is
during childbirth is higher thanany other country in the world
still blows my mind? Which Yeah,I don't women can have babies in
fields and other countries andhave a higher, and then a higher
rate of success and livelihood.
And then on top of that fear ofblack woman in this country,

(49:17):
your mortality rate spikes evenmore, which is absolutely
ridiculous, because

Unknown (49:22):
a black and brown women women of color. Yeah, it's the
rates are the highest. Yeah, Iwant to say it's three to one, I
think, one, I think, and sodon't need to go there with why
we already know why it has to dowith bias. It has to do with a
lot of other factors. And it'snot their own personal health.
It's the environment. And that'swhat we should they found here.
And this one staffer impressedupon me. She was like, we need

(49:43):
you to give us a proposal toplant trees. Why? And she said
because this is the reality. Andshe says these are the rates
here and I said with kids withteens because yes. And then when
I did the homework, literallyand I found this one study by by
the US Department of Forestry Ibelieve it was that study, maybe
I hope I get that study Correct.
I always tend to correlate thetwo studies incorrectly. But the

(50:04):
one study that found the Kaiserstudy I told you they use the
Kaiser data that showed thatthat that result, it became
painfully clear, not we knew itexisted. But the correlation
right here in our own backyardwas strictly tied to the absence
of trees in their community,relative to those on right here
in the east side of Alameda,right, which is about 27%. Okay,

(50:27):
24 27%, when I first found thisin late 2020, early 2021, late
2020. And so it behooves us forour own public safety first, we
need to plant trees to protectpeople, it's a public safety

(50:49):
issue, just like with COVID,right, we need to move at scale
with haste. This is anemergency. And then for public
health. The data showed, youknow, eat this is it for health,
trees, create oxygen, the numberof trees on your street, not in
your front yard and backyard notin you're not in the highlands

(51:10):
or in Tahoe. This number oftrees on city streets,
determines who's got the oxygento have health and a healthy
life. Not be complicated, notfeel nauseous or apathetic, not
apathetic, but just not have theenergy. Do you don't have clean
air? You don't realize it, youdon't realize it. And so, again,

(51:31):
this is why we're plantingtrees. This is what we're doing.
It's this is a mission for forfor public safety and health and
for climate. And it's an equityconcern. Right. So So So yeah,
the fact that we can do it, andpeople get the same smile that

(51:53):
you do when you're doing it now.
Yeah. And I just like I put outall like, I just put up my hand
and you're like, Yeah, I alreadydid it. Why? in your mind's eye,
the tree just pops there. Yeah.
And it's not, that's not thefact. But yeah, it is. Because
You're reliving the sameexperience. And that's the
dopamine kicking off and theoxytocin and your healing, just
by reliving an experience thatyou have a sense of agency over
one thing that gives youpositive feedback. And if it's

(52:16):
tied to a tree, and how manypeople planet if it's 60 trees a
day, in a five day workweek andeight hours a day, we only need
to pay three people in everycommunity of 75, approximately
75,000 people to be plantingthose trees. That is what it
comes down to. Those are thenumbers that seems

Siobhan (52:38):
like such an easy fix.
Right? Like it is asinine thatwe're not already doing that.

Unknown (52:44):
It's not that it seems this is language, this is
breaking you out of that major.
It is. It's not that it seems asyou said, it is right. It is.
And now you're now you're you'rein a different world. Yeah. So
that's where I said, I don'tneed to invite you to come plant
trees, you're gonna go planttrees, or you're going to save
the acorns, or the walnuts, orthe black walnuts or the or the

(53:06):
or the chestnuts or thebuckeyes, you're going to save
those seeds, and you're going todrop them and put them in pots
and you're going to give themaway to friends. Why? That's
what answers the other part ofthe climate crisis, the nursery
crisis. How do we get the other80% in the ground? The answer
is, we put out buckets of seedsfor squirrels and what does
squirrels do and stellar Jaysand ravens what do they do? They

(53:28):
take them in people like well,they eat them. It's like, no,
they go plant them. It's like,why do they plant them? They
know that's where food comesfrom. In future. They were like,
No, it's just a toy to gametheir animals. They're stupid.
It's like, yeah, yeah, hold mybeer. So it's and then watch
this documentary on the octopus,or the dolphin or even a dog or

(53:51):
even a spider. And look at theintelligence. Why? Because we
just think we're supreme. Again,that's human centered, right?
When you sent her nature and youremove yourself from the
equation and assume an enormousamount of humility, to just shut
up and watch other things andrespect them. I mean, we'll
start respecting other people'sthat way as well. But that's
it's they plant seeds. Dr.

(54:16):
Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr, thecivil rights activist, and
father and parent and incrediblehuman being, I think had been
released from the Selma jail andwas coming out of his house and
some reporter shoves amicrophone is from his mouth,
because that's what it was backin those days. He put a

(54:36):
microphone on you ask yourquestion, got the tape rolling
in the box on the side of yourhip. And he said, Dr. King, how
can you do this day in and dayout? preach about love your
brother as yourself and thebeloved community. And when
they're sending dogs on you.
They're sending your houses onfire. They're blowing up your

(54:58):
churches and Still hangingpeople? How can you preach that
and I guess Dr. King stopped andpaused, looks up and says even
if I knew the world would endtomorrow it I'd still go out

(55:20):
today in my front yard and plantmy apple tree
it's not that a tree is a signand a symbol of hope. It is the

(55:41):
audible Bulla zation not thearticulation, the ability to
Audible eyes it bring itmanifest it through voice what
the brain knows what thesquirrels know what the Ravens
know. And what little kids nowyou say everybody take one acorn

(56:03):
at the schools were at theMontessori schools two weeks
ago. Three Montessori schoolsthree days in a row right here
now Amina is key you losenuggets there kick kick in the
ass the cutest questions you'relike, Yes, I have a favorite
tree. Do you have a tree? Tree?
What's your tree? I have a treetoo. No you don't. I do. It's a
little kids are great. I lovethem. They were like ages four

(56:26):
to three and a half three and ahalf to like five and at this
three Montessori schools and andwe say okay everybody take an
acorn because we got them wewere asked to come in 100k trees
was asked to come in by this thechild unique Montessori schools
and get each kid to start theirown tree nursery. By planting
their own trees. Their theirMontessori schools are all on

(56:49):
board with 100k tree mission.
And they're actually startingclassroom nurseries and having
the kids raise the trees thatjust like I told you, I do as
the same thing with our sugarmaples. And so you put I have in
my hand but acorns and acorns,and I say okay, everybody just
take one first picked one, thesecond, third, fourth, fifth,

(57:10):
take one and we get all the wayaround to like Aaron, and Aaron,
Aaron, and Aaron or Andrew Aaronor something like that. And and
I said okay, and he goes to takeand he just like, reaches in and
takes one and then all of asudden his other three fingers.
Start pulling them all in. I'mlike, no, no, no, no, no. I'm
like, Just take one I'm liketrying to resist and like keep
his little fingers in there. Sohe only takes that one. And I

(57:31):
didn't want to like pinch themor anything. He's like looking
at me like his face isn'tchanging, but he knows what his
hands doing. And he's like facelike poker face. And and his
teacher starts going now air andI know that tone. I was like now
he's just the baby. I'm like,come on, really? And she's looks
at me. And I said, becausethey're squirrels. And he took

(57:52):
one. And I told everybody youcan have a second one afterward.
And they were all okay withthat. Right? Because they're all
trying to rationalize, you know,whose tree you don't have a tree
in that tree and how come hegets to make more with their
kids? They don't get that. Andso because they're squirrels
because they're squirrels. Math,Science. Now history. The city

(58:16):
in New York launched I think in2010. It's million tree
campaign. I think it was a fiveyear campaign that culminated
and finished in 2015. I think itwas chaired by Bette Midler.
Miller, the phenomenal Midler ifI hadn't said that diva, actress

(58:36):
singer, all that. Bette Midlerand apparently 10 months out,
somewhere around there. Thecampaign ran out of money. Oh,
it is not inexpensive to plant atree in in New York. And they
were hell bent on hitting thatmillion tree goal. And they

(58:58):
needed to for again, publicsafety, public health, but also
for climate. And they ran out ofmoney. And apparently, Midler
picked up the phone andsomething like within 72 hours,
I think raised the other$700,000 Now with her a list. I
could have been just a you know,a flip of a coin with somebody
else.

Siobhan (59:18):
But even three people, three people and

Unknown (59:21):
they had to argue over which one was gonna write it.
Yeah, but now it's not thepoint. It's the point right is
the thing is they raised it andthey closed out I think like a
month early, you know, they had10 months ago and they finally
closed it out. So six, ninemonths later, they did an audit
of the million tree campaign.
And it's online you can read thereport, and they didn't end up
planting. Truth be told 1million trees

Siobhan (59:49):
telling me they planted more. Ad 20 orals, neurobiology
dopamine How many trees did theyplant? You tell me 2 million?
Yes, yes. Right. That's amazing.
No, no, I mean, it's not enough.

(01:00:12):
No. And you're

Unknown (01:00:13):
like, I should go to Vegas? Yes, you should why you
nailed the number. And it's notthe fact that you nailed the
number. Because squirrels, humannature, we are nature, squirrels
and kids were nothing more thana taller crustier version of
that same kid. Science, we knowabout neurobiology and the

(01:00:38):
dopamine. You can't stop eatingfat pint of Rocky Road. 2
million. We have all we need ittakes to plant the planet.
Before 2030 Following our plan,you can hit it consistently if
you only pay the minimum, right?
Three people? Why? Three formath out there. Three people per

(01:01:01):
hour planting three trees isnine trees per hour in an eight
hour workday that 72 trees. Oh,but we're gonna back an hour out
paid for lunch, right? So welose nine trees. So that brings
us down to 61 trees in thateight hour workday that they can
hit three people paid livingwages, right? So and we need to

(01:01:26):
link them up in a workforcedevelopment plan or a program.
That's what our model does. Butyeah, forget about talking about
my mom. But you know, it'sdoable. We got this as a as a
climate as a species as humans,as sentient beings. We don't
need to look at that number. Wejust need to know the fact that

(01:01:46):
we that we can do anything, butwe got this right, we can do
this.

Siobhan (01:01:52):
There's no reason why we shouldn't be hitting those
goals and getting this shitdone. Because it just I mean,
just on your point, like youplant the trees, the community
gets healthier. The environmentgets healthier, like everyone
benefits

Unknown (01:02:06):
for every 100,000 trees, two slides. I speak in
terms of slides, folks, so Ihave to use my bit my PowerPoint
even want to talk in mind justbut I say two slides because,
you know, I'll give you the URLto this PowerPoint. But two
slides. One. Money does grow ontrees. Sorry, dad in heaven.
Money does grow on trees. Treesare green assets. The wealthy

(01:02:31):
have known that the highestreturn of those ecosystem
services is not on carbonsequestration. It's not on air
purification or filtration. It'snot on the storm water storage
50% of all trees 50% of a treeis water. 50% So that's

Siobhan (01:02:50):
like when a forest fire happens. You see trees are
usually all that's left. Youknow, like some of them are like
dead trees. But when youpictures that I've seen a forest
fire, the trees are stillstanding.

Unknown (01:03:03):
Yeah, like, Well, yeah.
What's dry

Siobhan (01:03:06):
burns, but like those trees.

Unknown (01:03:08):
I never thought of that. I never thought of that.
I've never thought of that. Iknew some bark is quote fire
resistant. And but I neverthought of that in terms of
because of the water. I mean,that's that's an interesting
observation. Yeah, a potentialsupposition.

Siobhan (01:03:25):
Which also means if we have more trees, maybe we have
less forest fires.

Unknown (01:03:29):
If we have fewer trees, we would have more

Siobhan (01:03:32):
No, if we have more trees, we'll have less because
the trees are keeping themoisture in the air. So not as
much as saying No, that's

Unknown (01:03:37):
true. That's true.
That's true. Well, it's not it'snot directly I don't think it's
as simple as having more treeswill have fewer forest fires,
but having more trees. It thewhole point is to restock the
globes trees. We've We've thereused to be 6 trillion trees. pre
pre industrial era. So only onlyin the last 150 years. Have we

(01:04:02):
cut the number of world's treesin half, sub half since the
Industrial Age we were burningwood right and we were creating
coal and carbon as they calledit in England, and and fossil
fuels. And even now we'redeforesting and people are like,
well, we're not deforesting,it's like, sure we are our urban

(01:04:23):
cities are called it's calleddevelopment, right? They just
cut 150 trees down just to plantin put in a whole new apartment
complex. Yeah, but they'replanting new trees. Not remotely
at the rate not even at 8020 ofwhat was cut down. Because of
density of trees. Trees don'tjust grow one tree every 30 feet

(01:04:43):
like you see on a street treestrip, right or that public
right away that that curb areabetween the sidewalk and the
street where trees grow. That'sone tree every 30 feet. That's
not a forest. That's a prison.
Right? It's a prison trees growUnder each other, I mean, in a
dense model, usually about 12trees in like per square meter

(01:05:07):
in the Miyawaki forest, if youheard of that, or the pocket
forest, but it's that's athicket, that's a woodland,
right. And that's what forestslook like. But American cities,
DeForest, on average, cut downtrees, if you will, for that
view for your kitchen or yourbedroom. Or to add that addition
on, we're cutting down 1.5% ofour total urban forests a year,

(01:05:31):
a year, millions a year. Andthat's in our urban areas, just
urban areas. 1.5%. So to putthat in perspective, the city of
Alameda where we're sitting, ithas on the books now. 29,000
trees, they said 26,000 before.
So 29,000 trees, we are cuttingdown 475 trees, and that is math
in my head. So it's somewhereright around there for him 75

(01:05:54):
trees a year, and that's nottalking to ones we're losing to
the storm. Right, right. It's450 trees a year.

Siobhan (01:06:02):
And if we're lucky, we're planting 200 trees for

Unknown (01:06:05):
35. No, and we're planning on the books 300. But
that's only the city'sresponsibility, not private
resident. No,

Siobhan (01:06:12):
I understand that. But then that's the difference.
Like, yeah, so even if andagain,

Unknown (01:06:16):
how many do we need to be planting a year 14,298. So if
we're losing 475 a year, we haveto be adding at just how many
we're losing a year. But youhave to add that or subtracted
from or no, you have to add thatinto the 14,000 a year we have
to do to make up for the deficitfor the amount of trees we do

(01:06:40):
and could sustain ourselves forin a climate model. And to
mitigate the impacts of climatein our community and to reforest
or bring our tree canopy stockup to 30%. Right. So to get to
that number, 100,000 trees, weneed 14,000 A year, not 300 a

(01:07:02):
year, we need to be planting 60trees a day, right? So that's
where we are, what we need to doit is it's not just that
achievable, that it's path. Andyes, we got this, we can do
this. And that's why I'm soexcited. Yeah, people are like,
how can you be such an optimist?
Because basically, I'm plantingapple trees every day, not just
in my mind's eye, but I can seethe future so can kids right,

(01:07:26):
and I know they're going to beapples with me, I'm going to
have food in the future orsomeone else after me or my kids
or my progeny are going to beable to eat from that tree. And
that's what that tree representsshade. Life. habitats. Climate
Right, right water storage.

(01:07:46):
Those are the easy ones. I'msaying the benefits of a tree.
carbon sequestration on averageis $1 per tree. When you're in
California $1 per tree onaverage, the values you get out
of a tree of ecosystem services.
The top five that cities benefitMoney does grow on trees. The
top five are carbonsequestration is about $1 per
tree in California has 9 millionstreet trees. 9 million okay.

(01:08:09):
You get $1 per tree and carbonsequestration $2 A tree in air
filtration $5 A tree on average$5 A tree in air water
filtration wow no water storage,water storage and rainwater
runoff storage. Water storage is$5 A tree you get an energy cost

(01:08:32):
shading, shading, you get $9 totree almost $9 A tree, the
highest returns you get ofecosystem services out of a tree
is not carbon, air waterstorage, or shade for
electricity savings, cost costsavings. You its property

(01:08:54):
values.

Siobhan (01:08:58):
That is wild.

Unknown (01:08:59):
So it's a wealth issue.
Money does grow on trees. Sowhat is that number? It's not $9
per tree, that energy gives youit's $90 per tree. That is the
ratio on average Money does growon trees. So it's an equity
issue, not just public health,but also an equity issue. Now

(01:09:20):
breaking that down for every100,000 trees, what are returns
on investment. So for plantingeach tree I just gave you
$1 $2 $5 for each of thoseecosystem services, just those
green infrastructure services,not even the health ones. That's
a completely different set ofvalues. Additional right, but
just for the we call it greeninfrastructure, the carbon

(01:09:42):
sequestration air filtration,those things and property values
for every 100,000 trees thatequates to $11.2 million. And
no, I'm not doing the math andremember my slides. So it's a
lot $1.2 million for per 100,000trees. So if you're wondering

(01:10:03):
where the budget comes from, youjust planted it. Why? Because
you just improve the airquality. In West Oakland, your
attendance rates go up atschool, what are what is the
attendance rates generate perschool district. Federal funding
for the amount of heads in theclassrooms, you get funds per

(01:10:25):
head, your attendance rates godown, your funding goes down,
attendance goes up, health goesup. If health goes up, health
costs go down. You got it. WestOakland highest rates of
pediatric emergency room visits.

(01:10:46):
Okay. So we have to look atnothing the data's been there,
we just have to, if you willstart planting trees, because
the returns on investment areno, the financial returns on
investment are right in front ofus. There are no political
barriers other than will.

Siobhan (01:11:08):
That seems shocking to me, because you break it down in
such a simple, easy way. Andit's between the science and the
math. Like the fact that thisdoesn't already happen. Is I
said earlier, it's asinine likeit is. We plant trees and that
heals so much other, it healseverything and puts money in
people's pockets. And people arealways worried about their

(01:11:29):
money. So like, independent ofthe fact that we're we're
healing and helping people inthe planet. People that are
greedy are going to be makingthe money off. Well, yeah,

Unknown (01:11:40):
that's the whole thing, right? Like, so

Siobhan (01:11:41):
we just need to get them on board so that they
understand that

Unknown (01:11:45):
you can lead a horse water, that's I'll leave it
there. You can lead horse water?
No, you got to find the 80% ofthe willing wrong actually, you
need to find the 20% of thewilling. I think it was Margaret
Mead. All revolutions are led bya strong, dedicated group of
individuals. Usually three,three. What, what's science and

(01:12:07):
something else shows you likejust three people. Find your
three people in your apartmentbuilding. Find your three people
on your block, find your threepeople in your school and at
work. Find your three people atyour cafe. That's what I did. It
started myself in we're Bowman,Sylvia Gibson, right here in

(01:12:28):
Alameda. We're all part of Casaliterally, you've just picked up
the phone. I called her and Isaid, Oh my gosh, tree popped in
my hand. Let me tell you myidea. And it started with three
people. And we carried it intofruition right into the
pandemic. Right cut us off atthe knees. But here we are now.
We're helping the city ofHayward plant 342,000 trees.
We're planting. Our goal isplanting still 100,000 trees

(01:12:55):
here in Alameda. The Rotary Clubis helping to lead the way with
Encino High School just poweringour campaign here in the city of
Alameda. These kids are great. Ican't call them kids. You hear
me stutter on and I'm like, Ohmy god. Oh my god. I mean, I'm
60 years old next year, but it'syeah, don't worry. It happens to

(01:13:16):
all of us

Siobhan (01:13:19):
if we're lucky enough.

Unknown (01:13:22):
Um, but But the kids are just driving this thing and
truthfully, I mean, I wasthinking to them today they
James XO and Lance Lee, whofirst started this off from
Alameda High School brought 42kids on board the month before
shut down and 2020 they theycreated our flyer force that we
still proudly use today. Theycreated our 100k tree for

(01:13:44):
Alameda flyer they created Oh,and they would not let me not
plant trees even though wedidn't get the first one going
until October 2020. They had meliterally going out and talking
to people during pandemic I wasjust freaked out because they
wanted to plant trees. They theythey weren't on mission. It's

(01:14:05):
their future. They owned it.
Right. They owned it. And theywould not let me not keep
pushing the city to get a treeplanting going during a smokey
emergency. 100 days of smokeemergency during a pandemic. And
we did we planted the firsttrees into Chanyeol park that
that Park went from Jackson Parkto Chanyeol park that year and

(01:14:26):
we ended up planting our first25 trees there and they planted
the first one I think they namedhim Oscar for whatever he is
kids but whatever their grade,

Siobhan (01:14:38):
where are we planting trees on June 3?

Unknown (01:14:40):
Um What Park Lydecker Park Bay farm island so a dear
friend who also was a colleagueon casa, our environmental task
force here in Alameda city ofAlameda Pat Potter, tireless
advocate and A wonderful womandied of, you know, age and I

(01:15:04):
think also cancer, and just onlylast year, and, you know,
couldn't do anything torecognize her, you know, who
knows, we're all coming out ofOMA Kron, you know, third wave
and two years or whatever. Andso this year, three different
groups that, that she was thatshe was involved in three groups
four groups got together andhave been raising funds, they've

(01:15:26):
raised over three $4,000 nice tojust pay for trees. And so we're
going to plant like 20 to 22 orupwards of that of trees and a
park and in a memorial groveneighborhood. So that's going to
be the pet Potter memorialgrove. All right, yeah. So it's
like June 3, I think

Siobhan (01:15:45):
writer Park and anyone can find more information on
this. You have a website aboutthat. Not that plan. No, not
that but but just if they wantto get involved with

Unknown (01:15:54):
the 100k trees number for humanity.com 100k trees for
humanity and also add onInstagram at 100k. Or maybe No,
it's just 100k trees. We mightjust be add 100k trees. I don't
know.

Siobhan (01:16:05):
I can add it to the show. As far as find tagging
when I put all this. Thank youso much.

Unknown (01:16:11):
Thanks for all the accommodations and everything
and we will get greenery herefor you.

Siobhan (01:16:15):
We will Yes, well in that. Well, you can talk about
putting all the greenery in mynew space to allow me to point
so that's to come. Yeah, so Allright, y'all. Thank you so much
for joining us and Amos and the100 100,300k trees to treat
under K trees for humanity andgo plant a tree today and then
find some joy.

Unknown (01:16:36):
Thank you