Amos White and 10K Trees

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 mortality r

Transcript

Siobhan: 0:00

Welcome to the duckling reality world Amos. Today we're hanging out with Amos, who is passionate about trees. Yeah, we're rolling. We can take a pause, we can restart it. Oh, do you have any questions? Yeah, so um, what I want to do is just talk to you, we got into conversation, and I'm not even sure how you got so into trees. But you are passionate about the trees on the island. And I know you have a background that is much more versatile than that. accomplished, but, you know, that's kind of your current focus.

Unknown: 0:33

Well, it's yeah, it comes from it has nothing to do with trees, but it's for two things. One, yeah. Whether or not I've been in trees quote for a long time or two, is it also just a result of a puzzle, a strategy? And the answer is both. So no, I haven't been in trees a long time. But yes, even in looking back at it, it's like when I look at my own life, some of the most defining moments did pop out like people asked, you know, like, when did you get involved in trees? And it's like, who the frick knows, but then yeah, I can tell you the story of the very first seedling I planted seed, I planted sugar maple in Columbus, Ohio, at our church, First Congregational Church when they had a little Rugrats we were all lined up holding hands walking out around the 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 period must have been February or when all the seedlings are March fall off the maple trees, and they fall down and they spin and they look like we call them helicopters. So we used to call them helicopter trees not knowing you know, species or anything. When you're three or four years old. I think we were four years old, four or five years old. And and so we took those back, and they let them dry out and in the window. And then we planted them in the corrugated egg cartons. So the little calf cup of an egg carton you planted in that they put little teaspoon of soil and there we planted it. And of course being regrets you forget about it at that age, I mean, literally 10 seconds and it's gone. And then that Easter, I remember going out the door of church and there's a hand putting right this in front of your face. Your seedling had grown, and there's a sprig. And so it's like, wow, that happened in Yeah, I planted that behind our behind beside our home garage. And a maple tree is the result of that now my parents have moved from that house or we moved to that or they're 20 years later, after I graduated from college and are actually I graduated from high school and college out of that out of that house. And, and that's pretty much my connection to wait, I did that. And that's a sense of place. And that's a sense of time in my lifetime, historically, so to speak. You know, you did that when, and that's not what how I got into it. But I can remember that definitively. I can tell you the story of of two other stories one of the tornado tree, as we call it, I was just back in Columbus this past weekend at my daughter was there. You know, we're here in Alameda, where we live now. But we literally flew back there for the first time since pandemic, I didn't want to be around my mom just because I didn't want to be a person who gave her COVID after somebody gives it to me in the airplane. I've been you know, panicked about that. But I finally flew back and got to see here and see the family but drove back through the old hood where her house was. And sure enough, it's all still there. But I drove past this one house, which is Jason tars on a corner there. And it it was the tornado tree now it must be 120 foot tall pine tree. Wow. And every time the skies got dark and broody, and we knew that there was a tornado warning, watch for our area in the winds kicked up, all the kids would secretly call each other on the phone and key group of kids like 10 of us from three different blocks. And we would all gather at the tornado tree and climb up the tree. And and the question was, who had the guts, or the something else but who had the guts to hang on in the wind as high as you could? As long as you could? Until the tornado sirens came on, which means you get it and that was the whole thing. So while it was Yeah, but it wasn't dangerous, but it's like you know, what can you do when you're a kid you know, and that's what it was, you know, wasn't a screens back then. It was either television or that or playing ball in the streets. But yeah, that tree still there are tornado tree. And then so that's one way of you know, have trees always been in my life and I can point to those things about a tree and those memories are indelible but it's not like yeah, a tree fell in our backyard once it It's like, we are nature and we are part of nature. And when it comes to a tree or planting something, your brain innately remembers that it is indelible for some reason. And that's my personal connection to the other side is not a three person so to speak, this literally just happened as a strategy. Once 45, that administration prior to Biden's administration, 45 pulled us out of the Paris agreement. And I was like, eff No, not on my watch. Seriously, not on my watch. I mean, I was a campaign organizer for years political organizer, community activist, yada, you know, but I was at the time a marketing consultant, here in Silicon Valley and in the Bay Area. And I literally just pivoted my entire life, once that happened, because I could see the end game, right. And a lot of people didn't make the connections. Everything else was a distraction to get to that point, attack on women, the attack on blacks tag on people from countries where predominantly black tag on gays, to me, it's like, Wait, all these disparate dots, what's the through line? And people like conservatism's Like no, no, no. And it came down to when the hurricane hit Puerto Rico and wiped out pretty much, you know, so much of a protectorate of our country, basically a state, our people, right, and, but predominantly, people of color. And when he went down there, and the only image that we all saw was 45, in this small looks like a warehouse closet, with like, 16 people all like cheering for him, and and he's throwing paper towels at them. Yeah. And I was like, wait, what, but I'm a poet, as well. And everything in politics is symbolic, especially for a photo opportunity photo op. In the paper towels, when you think of it, it's not like he was handing out in a gesture of empathy, care leadership. As a president, or as we say, presidential, who literally is feeding the troops, or handing out blankets to those who have been severely impacted, or just holding a baby or hugging a father who's lost something, or just sitting with people. He was throwing an article that was disposable. One that has to be used by the user, therefore, you're going to clean up this yourself.

Siobhan: 8:00

And then there were all the evidence of cleaning it up away, like it never happened.

Unknown: 8:04

And there's nothing about resources to sustain them. It was just you're going to clean it up. But that was symbolic. To me saying that was a signal to everybody from a capitalistic standpoint. We're gonna sell them everything they need for to, for them to get out of their own misery. To find comfort, food, shelter, it meant everything was nothing was being given to them. And so ensure enough, you know, the water that never got distributed, or was there but it was never given to them. After they left, someone found a hole literally supply of just crates, not crates, what do you call it? Yeah, crates or pallets full of those bottles of water. And it didn't break my heart as much as it was emblematic of that relationship of that administration, with our own peoples or with any peoples. And so that really made me that showed me that which I did know climate was the single largest driver of capitalism. It would be into the future in terms of climate impacts. It's not sea level rise. number one killer in climate is urban heat. number one killer worldwide urban heat, due to both lack of trees and the fact that climate is out of whack, you know, prolonged heat days, unreal, unreal, unfathomable, over 100 degrees. And so, when we look at that, to me, that was a sign that I really felt compelled to come up with a simple strategy. And when I saw him take us out of Paris Agreement, I literally kind of brooded over it and then what's her name happened that year in 20 19 Greta Thunberg school strike for climate started the August before in August 2018. or somewhere around there, July, August. And then in 2019, she call for a global strike for climate in August or September 19 through the 21st. worldwide. And you know, I help support kids from high schools to leave high schools. Any that did we chaperone, shall we say? Yeah, over to San Francisco. And it was an amazing, amazing, just show of support and kids who got it, right. This is going to be their future. And after that, I had read this article either in gris magazine 17. Yes, magazine, one of those far left, you know, magazines, and just some clickbait title, the world's gonna get a lot hotter. Here's how you can survive it. And I was like, Oh my god. Really? You guys just put that title out there. So I read it anyway. But, um, but it was Katharine Hayhoe, Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, who had led the US in the National Climate Assessment for over eight years, and got the Pentagon to declare that climate is the number one national security threat, not Russia, not China, not internet trolls. Not a meteoroid is going to hit us and wipe us out. Climate climate change, specifically back in like 2012. And I was like, wait, what? How can we haven't changed our budgets, completely decarbonize everything, all our decision making everything? And the answer is we hadn't. But why isn't anybody talking about it? And I read that article, but it really impression me to really start thinking about what I can do to impact both climate anxiety on peoples who felt, oh my God, I need to do something, but nobody knew what to do. And it literally hit me one morning. And I'm like, you know, what is one thing that you can do that you have a sense of agency, over that makes you feel good? That you can do and I kept, you know, repeating that and thinking over right then this little tree in my mind's eye popped in my hand that that tired little metaphor of a little handful of dirt with a seedling popping out of it like a pine tree, literally, my mind's eye popped into my hand, and I was like, You're kidding me? Literally, I was freaked out. But it's like, what? It was that palpable, right? And that's when I knew it's like, of course, it's sitting right in front of us. The greatest strategies in life, the greatest strategies in universe are, are right in front of us to the simplest things, right? And that's when I decided I want to put a tree in every person's hand. It's no more the article involved in that has to do with neuroscience and Narrative Therapy. It's what it's all about. How do you? How do psychologists and psychiatrists get a severely depressed person, you know, what's their role to heal themselves? Okay, and about it's about brainwaves and brainwaves, but you know, the brain and healing the brain and gates that are closed and gates that need to be open and how you perceive the world as negative and threatening and brooding versus how does a healthier mind and person do that? And what is the process to that narrative therapy or talk therapy or otherwise called couch therapy is what psychiatrists psychologists, you know, talk you through, it actually releases hormones, you know, endorphins in the brain are hormones of dopamine or oxytocin. And those are, those are, have a both a motivational effect and a healing effect. Oxytocin is the love hormone or feeling loved by something or love for something or empathy, so to speak, right? deep empathy and or dopamine, which is the pleasure hormone as we know it feeling liked by something or pleased or pleasured or feeling good about or for something. But dopamine has a hook and addictive component. So it's like, oh, you liked that scoop of ice cream or the third scoop of ice cream or that empty pint now, ice cream, right? It's not that you really liked the ice cream. That's the dopamine kicking in, it makes you just keep eating the addictive component. So people really think they have choices. That's your that's chemistry. That's your chemistry kicking in your neurobiology. But the same thing, whether you're flying a kite, riding a bike, playing with a ball, holding a baby, or planting a tree. So it's healing. It has the same addictive component once the one thing doing one thing where you have agency over it, and then talking about that, and then rinse and repeat, actually heals, nature heals. And so I knew that and I read that in that article. I'd no I didn't know that I read that in that article that that yes magazine gris magazine or whatever it was, and and right then after that tree popped in my head that one Sunday morning I decided, yeah, I want to plant the planet, one tree at a time, one person at a time, but at scale. And so this journey since that October of 2019, when we first launched to today is is is all about that. People call it a project or your your, you know, your three words I say I hate I hate hearing project or product or I forget what the other one is. But it's this is a mission. There is no planet B. These are not means we only have until 2032 Not just get it right, get it done. Get all these natural investments or nature based investments. I'm sitting here looking at your living green wall that you have fake I know but it's still he was living No. But you think it's it's it's still having the same neuro neuro neurobiological effect, why it's called biophilia, which is just the human for a human to see green or be surrounded by green or sitting amongst green, or trees or lush plants or looking at it like a moss wall or living wall reduces the diastolic rate of the blood pressure 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 we are which is how we got so screwed up to begin with. Right. So by centering nature, between social justice and racial justice, that is the framework for my organization, 100k trees for humanity. It's literally understanding the neurobiological theory of change, which is we need to surround ourselves with trees at scale for us to heal as a people spiritually, socially, nationally, individually, right. And to that, quote, rinse and repeat is to share that story with others. And invite them to plant trees with you because it is addictive. It's awesome. It's a cool phenomena to watch volunteers, but they get halfway into a hole they're digging. I'll go I go Hold, hold, hold a hole and talk to every volunteer every single planting. How's it gone? What does it need? Hey, you really want to hold a shovel like that? You'd be surprised. It's something that kids kids have never held shovels. Yeah, kids have never held a shovel in their life. And some adults do. Right? You know, we're living in not exactly a city, but you know, never held a shovel. And so digging is a it's a new thing. But the real thing is getting halfway through a hole and somebody saying, So when's the 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 watch happen. That's the dopamine talking and it's so cool. Or that they either said when's the next tree planting? Or they say, Can we get another tree? And usually it's that one. It's like, Hey, can we get a second tree? And you don't even have the whole for the first one yet? Or when's the next planting? And it's like, yeah, just go sign up. And people will literally leave their whole go sign up. But I love the phenomena. And that's when I first saw the phenomena kick in at our very first tree planting like October 2020, during the pandemic during a smoke emergency here in Northern California, but it was weird, but when I realized what was happening, I realized that was the article No, that was the dopamine effect of feeling pleased. But the brain knowing right, it is literally this is a pleasurable thing. For one reason or another and I want to go do it again. And but having watching people, audible eyes that right. That's amazing. It was so cool. It was so cool. So yeah, long winded answer to but nothing's ever simple, because I really do believe it's in the context of the narrative of the natural processes, of which we are a part of that we need to share. We really do need to look at how we can look at the imperative of how do we cool the planet below one point Five degrees Celsius. According to the UN scientists, by 2030, we now have six years, six months, and 23 days, as of today, 2020 25 days, as of today, to get in America. 68 billion trees in 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 a Sunday 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 about that 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 the planet, one tree at a time, which means one person at a time, give you a tree, your healing, right? Be Your like healing towards what's I don't need to why she's gonna plant another tree. I don't have to ask, right, I need to walk away. I just need to put a tree in your hand and walk away. My job is done. How many other people can we do that too? Now, what's the math? So scientists give us till 2030 to plant 1 trillion trees in order to pull the the amount of carbon and sequester it out of the atmosphere and actually to restore the climate, which is where climate comes from? over 60 plus percent come from the evaporation of water from the ground by trees and plants, Flora. So it's called overland mass overland mass worldwide. And so excuse me. So let's look at the math real quick. And the answer. I'm going to tell you how many trees per person per day. Okay, okay. On a managed sense. In other words, if we actually just Alright, say we all didn't just plant a tree. But we hired people to do this for six years, six months and 25 days. Thank you. Date, but notice that's a number. Right. Right. Right. So we know that's how many years and days right, right? How many treats does it take? So I did the math. And so in America, we need to plant 68 billion trees. But we only have enough nurseries and garden centers, the things that grow the seedlings and give it either to foresters or they send it to like local nurseries who in turn resell them to us. And so we'll have something like 1700 and change nurseries and garden centers nationwide, they grow 1.2 5 billion seedlings a year 1.2 5 billion. We have six years that literally comes up to approximately 9.1 billion or 1.25 1.3. It's about 9.1 billion trees there are only going to only going to grow between now and December 31 2029. So 68 billion. How do you plant that? Well, for us, we know for the urban context, the goal is to get every urban city nationwide, up to 30% tree canopy by 2030. So how many trees does that take per Urban Canopy on average per 75,000 people? It takes approximately 100,000 Trees approximately Okay, and we studied a consultant report from West Oaklyn of 2012. city of Alameda of 2017 2018. Their Climate Action Plan consultant who said Alamy could sustain on average one Nutri per capita resident by 2030. We had 76,000 People were projected to be 78,000 to 78 79,000 by 2030, which approximately was 80,000 people. And we read the city of Fremont, which had a very similar metric. And I'm like, wait a second, three disparate cities completely different, or in areas. West Oakland is not a city. It's an area in the city of Oakland, but they have 70,000 people. But how can all three reports say each one of these areas end up being approximately one Nutri per capita resident at about 70 Plus almost 80,000 people? And I said boom, the Pareto Principle 8020 rule. What's that the 8020 rule people have heard Oh, yeah, the 20 rule, the 8020 principle. What What I noticed in 2018, and 2018 2019, I was on 2017, I joined our local climate action or environmental taskforce here in the city of Alameda called Casa. And we were going over reports and looking at stuff and we realize that on tree planting and quoting nature based investments and other things. The city was consistently hitting. And it's kind of interesting, but it is what it is 80% of goal on so many different things, or we're funding it at 80%. And it's like 20% was, you know, missing under funding, like, right, just just never hit goal. And it's like, okay, if you just sum it up, it's the 8020 principle in operation, it happens. But then I noticed this happen with the report, I'm like, wait a second, if our consultants say, on average, we could sustain one new tree per capita resident on average. And that February of 2019, our environmental Task Force got our city council to draft a resolution and pass it in record time, literally under 45 days, a climate emergency declaration, which declared what is happening in the climate above us and around us right now as not normal. And therefore this is state of emergency we need to act on and it's called the climate emergency declaration. Resolution, we pass one here in the city of Alameda. We passed it in the County of Alameda, cities all over their and the world, we're passing these climate emergency declarations to declare that this is an emergency so that they can marshal resources to run them through their climate action plans and begin to act in a an emergency way for climate for the protection of the safety and the health and welfare of the residents and people in the planet. And so I said, Look, if we're in an emergency, we can't afford to do average, if 80% on a bell curve, bell curve, put your fingers down to the ground and then sweep your fingers upward to 12 o'clock. So pointing down and six o'clock one o'clock, you sweep it up to 12 o'clock, 12 o'clock is average on a bell curve, and then you would sweep it over to the other side from 12 o'clock all the way back over from 12345 down to six, that would be the high side of the average right? And if average is 80,000 People I said oh my gosh, that means we probably could maximally sustain 150 260,000 trees, but on average one new tree per capita resident, I said as this is a climate emergency, we cannot afford to be average or do anything average first for the planet. Because we have to center nature first. And we learned that from our native brothers and sisters. Everybody remembers Standing Rock, right standing Robbo, remember standing rock, it's like no, no, don't remember Standing Rock. Remember the message of the messengers in Standing Rock, our native brothers and sisters who showed us that and told us that water is life in that air is sacred, and that the forests shall provide the bounty of life. So as we steward them, so as we steward them, we are stewards of the earth, and that is the imbalance that has caused climate change. We are not stewarding the earth we're plundering it, we're exploiting it, we're reaping it. We have done everything but taking care of the earth, the planet and nature within it. And that's the imbalance that we're living right now. And so how do we restore that balance, we need to become the stewards again. And so back to the numbers, so we knew that 68 billion, it's gonna sound good. That's microphone hit. So 68 billion for 100,000 people, we're not going to do 80,000. What we need to do is add back in that other 20%, right, which is literally where the name of our organization came from. We went from 80,000 trees, and I said, we cannot afford to be average, we're going to kick back in that other 20% for the planet. And so it's 20% for nature. So we became 100,000 trees for humanity. And that was our launch. In December 2 of 2019. We declared we were 100k. Trees are humanity. And we're going to plant the planet. On a city by city by bases 100,000 trees, so we need 100,000 trees per urban community approximately 75,000 people each in a neighborhood if there's more in your city great but break it down. Per 75,000 How many trees do you need total for your city? To get your average tree canopy up from here in California the average tree canopy I believe is 15%. We need to get that up to 30% That's fine. have, you know, 100,000 trees on that ratio basis? So in a year, or in that six year period, how do we plan 100,000? Trees? The answer is in if we just made it seven years for the sake of the math, since we're in April, now we're in May now. But add the first four years back first four months back on for a seven year period, we need to plant 14,298. I memorized and I'm not doing the math. I used to be good, I'm nothing. But you need to plant 14,298 trees a year, a year for seven years to get 100,000 trees. And people are like, Oh my gosh, yeah, it's a lot of trees. Why the city of Alameda here, this little island city we live on that we're interviewing and right now is currently exceeding its previous tree planting plan before 27 to 18, this current climate action plan before they were doing 200 trees a year and people were like, wow, that's a lot of trees, to under maybe a lot of trees. But if you're not planting trees is a lot of trees. But let's get to them. Again, 200 trees a year, they increased it up to 300 trees a year. Don't ask me if they're hitting gold, or if they're hitting 80%. All I can say is read the reports. But but so that's 300 trees a year, the city of Berkeley is planting 700 trees here and people like to Berkeley they're always progressing with AR they're always out ahead. Well, kinda sometimes, but not always. But the planting 700 trees a year. That seems like a lot of trees. That's not enough. Then there's the city of Hayward. They're planting? Well, on the books. They're planting 1000 trees a year. Hallo. Hayward. Yep. So and then that wasn't They've only done for two years. 2021 they planted 1000 trees 2022. They didn't hit their number. They planted 2000 Oh, 100 plus trees. I was like, wait, what? They're blowing that nobody even heard that they were doing this. And so I was like, Wow, 2000 people like, wow, that's a lot. It's like, well, let's look at the math. If you're going to hit 100,000 trees, you need to be planting 14,298 trees a year, divided by how many months in a year? 12. That's 1190 trees a year. Let's just round it up to 1200. So 1200 trees a year? Are not a year, excuse me. 1200 trees a month, a month divided by 12? How do I know that? Again, I'm remembering my slides. My math mind is not that sharp to do the math that quick. And that's 1200 trees a month 1190 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 a five day workweek just from a work standpoint, we know it's a crisis. But we're only going to do it for five days a week. How many days? Or how many trees does it take per day? And the answer 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 a person plant? What we found out over three years of planting trees now two years and two years and seven months? Volunteers plant one tree per hour religiously. If you've got 80 volunteers and you have 160 trees, we know we're going to be done in two hours flat. And that's it. We're done in two hours. And it's the metric is it's it's awesome. We know exactly. It's a 20 minute warm up introductions welcomes donuts, coffee, you know you're into it and divide the number of trees by volunteers. And that's how many hours is going to take you we're done right on time. Right. And then there's cleanup after you're done right on time. But that's volunteers. Now in our model, 100k tree, urban Greenbelt initiative model. When you hire people, we learned from like the New York City million tree campaign and friends of friends of the urban forest in San Francisco and Seattle's group, a paid tree worker plants three trees per hour. Well, how many trees per hour in an eight hour work day? Can you get in the ground? And how many people does it take to plant 60? Trees? The answer is three. Three people, three trees per hour, eight hour work day you can go home even though we know it's a crisis, right? But you don't see government's throwing money at this like we did with COVID I'm not here to question that at all. I am. No I'm not because that 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 to satisfy yourself for the fact Take a look at what they're not doing. I'm sorry, no. Here. In the meantime, take this shovel and go plan and here's the seedling. Right. Yeah, right. Right. Yeah. Are you planning with this this weekend? Yeah, let's do it. We we went our next tree 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 questions all your life, right? At some point, you got to pick up a shovel, or you got to pick up a hose, and you got to just point it, and you got to put out the fire. And eventually, you're going to realize that you aren't holding the hose by yourself. And that somebody else literally is leaning against your back. Because the pressure of that hose is enormous. To put out a fire, it is enormous. It is not a one person affair. And then you're going to realize that somebody else is holding the hose pushing against the person who's pushing against your back. And that is what we're in right now. Right? As Greta Thunberg said, we have to act now as if our 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. And it's because people feel hopeless, because they don't feel empowered to act, although the answer is in potentially, the palm of their hands. So what 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 tree store. Buy it $30.50 $50 $70 Just by one tree and planted in your yard six feet away from a wall six feet away from a foundation or your neighbor's property line because when it grows, it's going to expand. But the thing is plant a tree. And that is the most important thing that anyone can do now for the next six years. It's not self serving my my my statement here. This is existential. Literally for not to save the planet the planet is going to live. The question is, is it only going to be 20% of us that do and where and ain't going to be Mars? Because we don't have that built out. And ain't gonna be underground again right now. So the thing is, before we get there and before we pass the point 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 explained to me like and just I keep thinking about how you say the hills or the trees are healing like when you think about driving down a tree lane road versus driving down a not tree lane road. Like the difference in your drive like people will or your living space are your living space. Yeah, right. Like so why? Why is it that so many? Is it just because of money that so many plates like my apartment complex? There's turf, we don't have grass? It's strictly money, is it? It's made, but it's it's that 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 jump to a slide from the Nature Conservancy. It's a brilliant, beautiful slide. It's a process slide. But it shows trees have what are called we call ecosystem services or benefits. The services direct, you know, specific services like they provide what do trees provide for us they provide. Shade is the first thing everybody will tell you two different ways they provide shade. Well, one biomass meaning just their bodies block the radiation of the sun. By blocking the radiation of the sun just like a hand does or a wall does. What's on the opposite side is cooler as a result of not being in direct path of that radiation. Trees have one a shade effect, but they also have a second cooling effect. What we learn is called climate, but it's it's called evapo transpiration. So basically, they suck water up from groundwater all day long. Right? That's what trees do. That's their their bio filters. They filter water from the ground and breathe it out into the atmosphere as mist vapor. And that literally becomes our climate, in the form of what's called a micro climate. In the Bay Area. We hear microclimates most other places across me I've never heard of a microclimate on the news, but here in the Bay Area, it's like well, microclimate of this area, you know, like raining and in Novato and the North Bay and it could be like foggy over in Sausalito Marin. It's always splotchy and foggy down in, in San Francisco and obviously in San Jose. It's like burning and dry. But we have all these different micro climates here because of our topography. Right. But and you know, everywhere all around the world as I said before there are these microclimates, the area immediately above your area where you live, your geography is your microclimate, and 60 66% It's 6663 I get my numbers wrong, but it's right in there 66% Of all of what sustains that microclimate comes from the floor below. Okay, in return 63% of all local precipitation comes from the microclimate. Let me repeat it again. The microclimates creation is a result of the sum total of flora below and the amount of evapo transpiration that provides the establishment of that micro climate as opposed to the macro climate which is called our like our Jetstream the large water cycle versus the smaller cycle and so. So, with that microclimate, the more trees we have indoor plant, the more moisture right Are you starting to see it? In other words, what drought right plant more trees two examples. One thing first, again, the numbers. One mature Coast Live Oak Tree. She transpires through evapotranspiration transpires three to 500 gallons, which 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. I feel like it's probably a year but if you're so excited, it's probably 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 32 minutes. Wow. No climate. So every time we feel second thing, there's shade. But that climate that mist, you don't see it, you know, there's little sprayers at the grocery store right in the vegetable section. That's kind of its micro, you know, like micro dies water, right? It's not the water that cools you. It's the water hitting the air in it. If it pulls the heat, it's called latent heat. We call it humidity but scientists call it latent heat. So it pulls that heat out of the air. The change in temperature is experienced as coolness Yeah. That process can lower temperatures anywhere between eight and 20 degrees. Just from the water vapor. Yeah, another eight to 20 degrees. That's huge versus the blocking of heat. Great study from Dr. Janet hearten colleague of mine on our California CalFire board urban forestry Advisory Committee, Dr. Hart and with their colleagues did a study in Coachella 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 down astroturf there to keep it cool that organizers and you say like you know there's no trees here and your your patio area is hole open areas vacuous. It's money, but they thought they were being eco conscious by putting down astroturf where it'll be cooler than the rock that was there. But they weren't going to court and trees but they put down astroturf, the astroturf was actually hotter. So it still retains a lot of heat. What she did was a study and they did put up trees, and they realized and realize they found from their results. Trees can lower temperatures 60 to 90 degrees, or shade, shade. So look up Dr. Janet Hardin, she's with University of California ANR UC ANR is her department that she works in. But it's not like it's a brilliant study. It's the fact that somebody just studied it, right? And the results are out there. So trees save lives. Okay, it reduces urban heat temperatures by absorbing the radiation instead of having the asphalt absorb it and hold it all day long and emit it slowly back into the atmosphere all night long, where you don't get relief from the heat. And it becomes oppressive and actually causes increases desiccation of the land, which means drying out of the earth itself, because it's just too hot. And so it's evaporating that whatever moisture is in the earth will evaporate. And so it's trees. There are over 26 different ecosystem services. They create shade. They create climate in the environment. Trees create oxygens to Bees filter with their bodies, their leaves, their sticks, their twin twigs and stems, dust and micro particles, ie air pollution, number one source of air pollution, transportation and transit, transportation and transit nationwide. Okay 70% of all of our air pollution from that system from those sources, trees filter that the only trees that actually suck out the volatile organic compounds that come off are like diesel fumes and and you know toxins and in the air are conifers, your pine, your spruce, your cedars your sequoias redwoods as you will those actually absorb those gases, therefore, the oxygen they put off is pure. So they actually filter the air. Yes. And so I mean, it's exciting what trees do. Yeah, once you learn all this, you know, we've all heard these different things. But when you tie it all together, 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 can afford it. It's because the other communities were actually kept from having trees planted their resources were kept from planting trees there, just because the resources were all sent to the other neighborhoods. Historically, over time, I made a great New York Times article on that on the redlining of communities and the relationship of, quote, environmental justice. The relationship of resources and the lack of city trees, otherwise called street trees in our black and brown communities across the entire nation, right. So when you look at that there was a study in 2015. I think it was released in 2016. Right here in Northern California by the US Department of Agriculture, Forestry Service. Greg McPherson was the lead researcher on that out of Davis, and used Kaiser Permanente as data. It was scrubbed of private information, but they participated in this study where they had all their health information, run through their study, and they found that per zip code, the wealthiest zip codes, the wealthiest communities had better health indicators, and lower negative indicators. And people were like, well, yeah, they can afford for the food and you know, they're organic, and they just have better lifestyles, and it's like, no, all that is BS. It strictly came down to one correlative factor, the number of street trees, per that zip code, and people are like, wait, what it's like, yeah, cardiac disease, right. Upper respiratory disease, asthma. chronic headaches, absenteeism at work. Absenteeism at school was directly tied to the number of trees or the absence of trees in your community. Why trees create oxygen. Here in the world. We live in Alameda County in the Bay Area, San Francisco Bay area, where we're sitting Alameda County, there's an unincorporated area just due east of San Leandro do west of Hayward called the Eden area. And it's comprised of like five different areas, the San Lorenzo, Ashland, cherryland, Castro Valley and Fairview and the Fairview Fairview Heights, I think it's called. And in those areas, the Ashlyn area it was pointed out to me or one of the supervisors, Board of Supervisors, staff here in Alameda County. The Ashland area has the highest teenage maternal mortality rates. In the Bay Area, I was like, Wait, why was 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 than any other country in the world still blows my mind? Which Yeah, I don't women can have babies in fields and other countries and have a higher, and then a higher rate of success and livelihood. And then on top of that fear of black woman in this country, your mortality rate spikes even more, 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, I want to say it's three to one, I think, one, I think, and so don't need to go there with why we already know why it has to do with bias. It has to do with a lot of other factors. And it's not their own personal health. It's the environment. And that's what we should they found here. And this one staffer impressed upon me. She was like, we need you to give us a proposal to plant trees. Why? And she said because this is the reality. And she says these are the rates here and I said with kids with teens because yes. And then when I did the homework, literally and I found this one study by by the US Department of Forestry I believe it was that study, maybe I hope I get that study Correct. I always tend to correlate the two studies incorrectly. But the one study that found the Kaiser study I told you they use the Kaiser data that showed that that that result, it became painfully clear, not we knew it existed. But the correlation right here in our own backyard was 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, 24 27%, when I first found this in late 2020, early 2021, late 2020. And so it behooves us for our own public safety first, we need to plant trees to protect people, it's a public safety issue, just like with COVID, right, we need to move at scale with haste. This is an emergency. And then for public health. The data showed, you know, eat this is it for health, trees, create oxygen, the number of trees on your street, not in your front yard and backyard not in you're not in the highlands or in Tahoe. This number of trees on city streets, determines who's got the oxygen to have health and a healthy life. Not be complicated, not feel nauseous or apathetic, not apathetic, but just not have the energy. Do you don't have clean air? You don't realize it, you don't realize it. And so, again, this is why we're planting trees. This is what we're doing. It's this is a mission for for for public safety and health and for climate. And it's an equity concern. Right. So So So yeah, the fact that we can do it, and people get the same smile that you do when you're doing it now. Yeah. And I just like I put out all like, I just put up my hand and you're like, Yeah, I already did it. Why? in your mind's eye, the tree just pops there. Yeah. And it's not, that's not the fact. But yeah, it is. Because You're reliving the same experience. And that's the dopamine kicking off and the oxytocin and your healing, just by reliving an experience that you have a sense of agency over one thing that gives you positive feedback. And if it's tied to a tree, and how many people planet if it's 60 trees a day, in a five day workweek and eight hours a day, we only need to pay three people in every community of 75, approximately 75,000 people to be planting those trees. That is what it comes down to. Those are the numbers that seems

Siobhan: 52:38

like such an easy fix. Right? Like it is asinine that we'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 as you said, it is right. It is. And now you're now you're you're in a different world. Yeah. So that's where I said, I don't need to invite you to come plant trees, you're gonna go plant trees, or you're going to save the acorns, or the walnuts, or the black walnuts or the or the or the chestnuts or the buckeyes, you're going to save those seeds, and you're going to drop them and put them in pots and you're going to give them away to friends. Why? That's what answers the other part of the climate crisis, the nursery crisis. How do we get the other 80% in the ground? The answer is, we put out buckets of seeds for squirrels and what does squirrels do and stellar Jays and ravens what do they do? They 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 comes from. In future. They were like, No, it's just a toy to game their animals. They're stupid. It's like, yeah, yeah, hold my beer. So it's and then watch this documentary on the octopus, or the dolphin or even a dog or even a spider. And look at the intelligence. Why? Because we just think we're supreme. Again, that's human centered, right? When you sent her nature and you remove yourself from the equation and assume an enormous amount of humility, to just shut up and watch other things and respect them. I mean, we'll start respecting other people's that way as well. But that's it's they plant seeds. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, the civil rights activist, and father and parent and incredible human being, I think had been released from the Selma jail and was coming out of his house and some reporter shoves a microphone is from his mouth, because that's what it was back in those days. He put a microphone on you ask your question, got the tape rolling in the box on the side of your hip. And he said, Dr. King, how can you do this day in and day out? preach about love your brother as yourself and the beloved community. And when they're sending dogs on you. They're sending your houses on fire. They're blowing up your churches and Still hanging people? How can you preach that and I guess Dr. King stopped and paused, looks up and says even if I knew the world would end tomorrow it I'd still go out today in my front yard and plant my apple tree it's not that a tree is a sign and a symbol of hope. It is the audible Bulla zation not the articulation, the ability to Audible eyes it bring it manifest it through voice what the brain knows what the squirrels know what the Ravens know. And what little kids now you say everybody take one acorn at the schools were at the Montessori schools two weeks ago. Three Montessori schools three days in a row right here now Amina is key you lose nuggets there kick kick in the ass the cutest questions you're like, Yes, I have a favorite tree. Do you have a tree? Tree? What's your tree? I have a tree too. No you don't. I do. It's a little kids are great. I love them. They were like ages four to three and a half three and a half to like five and at this three Montessori schools and and we say okay everybody take an acorn because we got them we were asked to come in 100k trees was asked to come in by this the child unique Montessori schools and get each kid to start their own tree nursery. By planting their own trees. Their their Montessori schools are all on board with 100k tree mission. And they're actually starting classroom nurseries and having the kids raise the trees that just like I told you, I do as the same thing with our sugar maples. And so you put I have in my hand but acorns and acorns, and I say okay, everybody just take one first picked one, the second, third, fourth, fifth, take one and we get all the way around to like Aaron, and Aaron, Aaron, and Aaron or Andrew Aaron or something like that. And and I said okay, and he goes to take and he just like, reaches in and takes one and then all of a sudden his other three fingers. Start pulling them all in. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm like, Just take one I'm like trying to resist and like keep his little fingers in there. So he only takes that one. And I didn't want to like pinch them or anything. He's like looking at me like his face isn't changing, but he knows what his hands doing. And he's like face like poker face. And and his teacher starts going now air and I 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, because they're squirrels. And he took one. And I told everybody you can have a second one afterward. And they were all okay with that. Right? Because they're all trying to rationalize, you know, whose tree you don't have a tree in that tree and how come he gets to make more with their kids? They don't get that. And so because they're squirrels because they're squirrels. Math, Science. Now history. The city in New York launched I think in 2010. It's million tree campaign. I think it was a five year campaign that culminated and finished in 2015. I think it was chaired by Bette Midler. Miller, the phenomenal Midler if I hadn't said that diva, actress singer, all that. Bette Midler and apparently 10 months out, somewhere around there. The campaign ran out of money. Oh, it is not inexpensive to plant a tree in in New York. And they were hell bent on hitting that million tree goal. And they needed to for again, public safety, public health, but also for climate. And they ran out of money. And apparently, Midler picked up the phone and something 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 the point. It's the point right is the thing is they raised it and they closed out I think like a month early, you know, they had 10 months ago and they finally closed it out. So six, nine months later, they did an audit of the million tree campaign. And it's online you can read the report, and they didn't end up planting. Truth be told 1 million trees

Siobhan: 59:49

telling me they planted more. Ad 20 orals, neurobiology dopamine How many trees did they plant? You tell me 2 million? Yes, yes. Right. That's amazing. No, no, I mean, it's not enough. No. And you're

Unknown: 1:00:13

like, I should go to Vegas? Yes, you should why you nailed the number. And it's not the fact that you nailed the number. Because squirrels, human nature, we are nature, squirrels and kids were nothing more than a taller crustier version of that same kid. Science, we know about neurobiology and the dopamine. You can't stop eating fat pint of Rocky Road. 2 million. We have all we need it takes 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 for math out there. Three people per hour planting three trees is nine 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 we lose nine trees. So that brings us down to 61 trees in that eight hour workday that they can hit three people paid living wages, right? So and we need to link them up in a workforce development plan or a program. That's what our model does. But yeah, forget about talking about my mom. But you know, it's doable. 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. We just need to know the fact that we that we can do anything, but we got this right, we can do this.

Siobhan: 1:01:52

There's no reason why we shouldn't be hitting those goals and getting this shit done. Because it just I mean, just on your point, like you plant the trees, the community gets healthier. The environment gets healthier, like everyone benefits

Unknown: 1:02:06

for every 100,000 trees, two slides. I speak in terms of slides, folks, so I have to use my bit my PowerPoint even want to talk in mind just but I say two slides because, you know, I'll give you the URL to this PowerPoint. But two slides. One. Money does grow on trees. Sorry, dad in heaven. Money does grow on trees. Trees are green assets. The wealthy have known that the highest return of those ecosystem services is not on carbon sequestration. It's not on air purification or filtration. It's not on the storm water storage 50% of all trees 50% of a tree is water. 50% So that's

Siobhan: 1:02:50

like when a forest fire happens. You see trees are usually all that's left. You know, like some of them are like dead trees. But when you pictures that I've seen a forest fire, the trees are still standing.

Unknown: 1:03:03

Yeah, like, Well, yeah. What's dry

Siobhan: 1:03:06

burns, but like those trees.

Unknown: 1:03:08

I never thought of that. I never thought of that. I've never thought of that. I knew some bark is quote fire resistant. And but I never thought of that in terms of because of the water. I mean, that's that's an interesting observation. Yeah, a potential supposition.

Siobhan: 1:03:25

Which also means if we have more trees, maybe we have less forest fires.

Unknown: 1:03:29

If we have fewer trees, we would have more

Siobhan: 1:03:32

No, if we have more trees, we'll have less because the trees are keeping the moisture in the air. So not as much as saying No, that's

Unknown: 1:03:37

true. That's true. That's true. Well, it's not it's not directly I don't think it's as simple as having more trees will have fewer forest fires, but having more trees. It the whole point is to restock the globes trees. We've We've there used to be 6 trillion trees. pre pre industrial era. So only only in the last 150 years. Have we cut the number of world's trees in half, sub half since the Industrial Age we were burning wood right and we were creating coal and carbon as they called it in England, and and fossil fuels. And even now we're deforesting and people are like, well, we're not deforesting, it's like, sure we are our urban cities are called it's called development, right? They just cut 150 trees down just to plant in put in a whole new apartment complex. Yeah, but they're planting new trees. Not remotely at the rate not even at 8020 of what was cut down. Because of density of trees. Trees don't just grow one tree every 30 feet like you see on a street tree strip, right or that public right away that that curb area between the sidewalk and the street where trees grow. That's one tree every 30 feet. That's not a forest. That's a prison. Right? It's a prison trees grow Under each other, I mean, in a dense model, usually about 12 trees in like per square meter in the Miyawaki forest, if you heard of that, or the pocket forest, but it's that's a thicket, that's a woodland, right. And that's what forests look like. But American cities, DeForest, on average, cut down trees, if you will, for that view for your kitchen or your bedroom. Or to add that addition on, we're cutting down 1.5% of our total urban forests a year, a year, millions a year. And that's in our urban areas, just urban areas. 1.5%. So to put that in perspective, the city of Alameda where we're sitting, it has on the books now. 29,000 trees, they said 26,000 before. So 29,000 trees, we are cutting down 475 trees, and that is math in my head. So it's somewhere right around there for him 75 trees a year, and that's not talking to ones we're losing to the storm. Right, right. It's 450 trees a year.

Siobhan: 1:06:02

And if we're lucky, we're planting 200 trees for

Unknown: 1:06:05

35. No, and we're planning on the books 300. But that's only the city's responsibility, not private resident. No,

Siobhan: 1:06:12

I understand that. But then that's the difference. Like, yeah, so even if and again,

Unknown: 1:06:16

how many do we need to be planting a year 14,298. So if we're losing 475 a year, we have to be adding at just how many we're losing a year. But you have to add that or subtracted from or no, you have to add that into the 14,000 a year we have to do to make up for the deficit for the amount of trees we do and could sustain ourselves for in a climate model. And to mitigate the impacts of climate in our community and to reforest or bring our tree canopy stock up to 30%. Right. So to get to that number, 100,000 trees, we need 14,000 A year, not 300 a year, we need to be planting 60 trees a day, right? So that's where we are, what we need to do it is it's not just that achievable, that it's path. And yes, we got this, we can do this. And that's why I'm so excited. Yeah, people are like, how can you be such an optimist? Because basically, I'm planting apple trees every day, not just in my mind's eye, but I can see the future so can kids right, and I know they're going to be apples with me, I'm going to have food in the future or someone else after me or my kids or my progeny are going to be able to eat from that tree. And that's what that tree represents shade. Life. habitats. Climate Right, right water storage. Those are the easy ones. I'm saying the benefits of a tree. carbon sequestration on average is $1 per tree. When you're in California $1 per tree on average, the values you get out of a tree of ecosystem services. The top five that cities benefit Money does grow on trees. The top five are carbon sequestration is about $1 per tree in California has 9 million street trees. 9 million okay. You get $1 per tree and carbon sequestration $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 shading, shading, you get $9 to tree almost $9 A tree, the highest returns you get of ecosystem services out of a tree is not carbon, air water storage, or shade for electricity savings, cost cost savings. You its property values.

Siobhan: 1:08:58

That is wild.

Unknown: 1:08:59

So it's a wealth issue. Money does grow on trees. So what is that number? It's not $9 per tree, that energy gives you it's $90 per tree. That is the ratio on average Money does grow on trees. So it's an equity issue, not just public health, but also an equity issue. Now breaking that down for every 100,000 trees, what are returns on investment. So for planting each tree I just gave you$1 $2 $5 for each of those ecosystem services, just those green infrastructure services, not even the health ones. That's a completely different set of values. Additional right, but just for the we call it green infrastructure, the carbon sequestration air filtration, those things and property values for every 100,000 trees that equates to $11.2 million. And no, I'm not doing the math and remember my slides. So it's a lot $1.2 million for per 100,000 trees. So if you're wondering where the budget comes from, you just planted it. Why? Because you just improve the air quality. In West Oakland, your attendance rates go up at school, what are what is the attendance rates generate per school district. Federal funding for the amount of heads in the classrooms, you get funds per head, your attendance rates go down, your funding goes down, attendance goes up, health goes up. If health goes up, health costs go down. You got it. West Oakland highest rates of pediatric emergency room visits. Okay. So we have to look at nothing the data's been there, we just have to, if you will start planting trees, because the returns on investment are no, the financial returns on investment are right in front of us. There are no political barriers other than will.

Siobhan: 1:11:08

That seems shocking to me, because you break it down in such a simple, easy way. And it's between the science and the math. Like the fact that this doesn't already happen. Is I said earlier, it's asinine like it is. We plant trees and that heals so much other, it heals everything and puts money in people's pockets. And people are always worried about their money. So like, independent of the fact that we're we're healing and helping people in the planet. People that are greedy are going to be making the money off. Well, yeah,

Unknown: 1:11:40

that's the whole thing, right? Like, so

Siobhan: 1:11:41

we just need to get them on board so that they understand that

Unknown: 1:11:45

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% of the willing wrong actually, you need to find the 20% of the willing. I think it was Margaret Mead. All revolutions are led by a strong, dedicated group of individuals. Usually three, three. What, what's science and something else shows you like just three people. Find your three people in your apartment building. Find your three people on your block, find your three people in your school and at work. Find your three people at your cafe. That's what I did. It started myself in we're Bowman, Sylvia Gibson, right here in Alameda. We're all part of Casa literally, you've just picked up the phone. I called her and I said, Oh my gosh, tree popped in my hand. Let me tell you my idea. And it started with three people. And we carried it into fruition right into the pandemic. Right cut us off at the knees. But here we are now. We're helping the city of Hayward plant 342,000 trees. We're planting. Our goal is planting still 100,000 trees here in Alameda. The Rotary Club is helping to lead the way with Encino High School just powering our campaign here in the city of Alameda. These kids are great. I can't call them kids. You hear me stutter on and I'm like, Oh my god. Oh my god. I mean, I'm 60 years old next year, but it's yeah, don't worry. It happens to all of us

Siobhan: 1:13:19

if we're lucky enough.

Unknown: 1:13:22

Um, but But the kids are just driving this thing and truthfully, I mean, I was thinking to them today they James XO and Lance Lee, who first started this off from Alameda High School brought 42 kids on board the month before shut down and 2020 they they created our flyer force that we still proudly use today. They created our 100k tree for Alameda flyer they created Oh, and they would not let me not plant trees even though we didn't get the first one going until October 2020. They had me literally going out and talking to people during pandemic I was just freaked out because they wanted to plant trees. They they they weren't on mission. It's their future. They owned it. Right. They owned it. And they would not let me not keep pushing the city to get a tree planting going during a smokey emergency. 100 days of smoke emergency during a pandemic. And we did we planted the first trees into Chanyeol park that that Park went from Jackson Park to Chanyeol park that year and we ended up planting our first 25 trees there and they planted the first one I think they named him Oscar for whatever he is kids but whatever their grade,

Siobhan: 1:14:38

where are we planting trees on June 3?

Unknown: 1:14:40

Um What Park Lydecker Park Bay farm island so a dear friend who also was a colleague on casa, our environmental task force here in Alameda city of Alameda Pat Potter, tireless advocate and A wonderful woman died of, you know, age and I think also cancer, and just only last year, and, you know, couldn't do anything to recognize her, you know, who knows, we're all coming out of OMA Kron, you know, third wave and two years or whatever. And so this year, three different groups that, that she was that she was involved in three groups four groups got together and have been raising funds, they've raised over three $4,000 nice to just pay for trees. And so we're going to plant like 20 to 22 or upwards of that of trees and a park and in a memorial grove neighborhood. So that's going to be the pet Potter memorial grove. All right, yeah. So it's like June 3, I think

Siobhan: 1:15:45

writer Park and anyone can find more information on this. You have a website about that. Not that plan. No, not that but but just if they want to get involved with

Unknown: 1:15:54

the 100k trees number for humanity.com 100k trees for humanity and also add on Instagram at 100k. Or maybe No, it's just 100k trees. We might just be add 100k trees. I don't know.

Siobhan: 1:16:05

I can add it to the show. As far as find tagging when I put all this. Thank you so much.

Unknown: 1:16:11

Thanks for all the accommodations and everything and we will get greenery here for you.

Siobhan: 1:16:15

We will Yes, well in that. Well, you can talk about putting all the greenery in my new space to allow me to point so that's to come. Yeah, so All right, y'all. Thank you so much for joining us and Amos and the 100 100,300k trees to treat under K trees for humanity and go plant a tree today and then find some joy.

Unknown: 1:16:36

Thank you