Green Belt
Green Belt
Terry Thomas
Grantham University
April Croxton
Intro to Environmental Science
April 16, 2013
Green Belt Throughout this world we see trees just about everywhere. As children we don’t really pay too much attention to them other than climbing them, or finding ways to swing from them like a monkey. The thing that most of us don’t realize is how vital trees are to our lives, our water, to our soil, to our air, and to our atmosphere. Over the years the amount of trees in the world has been dwindling considerably to point that it has been affecting multiple areas. In one area of the world this was taking a drastic hit on the land. In 1977 a woman from Nairobi, Kenya named Professor Wangari Maathai realized this, and she took charge to fix this issue. The way she went about fixing the issue of so many trees being cut down was by founding the program called “The Green Belt Movement” (Unattributed, 2006).
When The Green Belt Movement began it was a grassroots tree planting program. It was designed to address the ever growing challenges of deforestation, soil erosion, and lack of water (Unattributed, 2006). Their act of planting trees has turned into the most prominent women’s civil society organizations by helping women throughout Africa to become stewards of the natural environment. The idea of the organization was to setup an organization that would be able to overcome the aspects of environmental degradation. They wanted to be able to give trees back to the environment so that they could help keep soil erosion down, keep water sources clean, filter ozone gases, and give back oxygen to the world. We can use the forests more sustainable in four different ways if we will just think about it. If we as a whole would emphasize the economic value of a forest’s ecological services, protect our old-growth forest, harvest trees no faster than they can replenish, and use a more sustainable substitute resource (Miller Jr., 2007). The
Terry Thomas
Grantham University
April Croxton
Intro to Environmental Science
April 16, 2013
Green Belt Throughout this world we see trees just about everywhere. As children we don’t really pay too much attention to them other than climbing them, or finding ways to swing from them like a monkey. The thing that most of us don’t realize is how vital trees are to our lives, our water, to our soil, to our air, and to our atmosphere. Over the years the amount of trees in the world has been dwindling considerably to point that it has been affecting multiple areas. In one area of the world this was taking a drastic hit on the land. In 1977 a woman from Nairobi, Kenya named Professor Wangari Maathai realized this, and she took charge to fix this issue. The way she went about fixing the issue of so many trees being cut down was by founding the program called “The Green Belt Movement” (Unattributed, 2006).
When The Green Belt Movement began it was a grassroots tree planting program. It was designed to address the ever growing challenges of deforestation, soil erosion, and lack of water (Unattributed, 2006). Their act of planting trees has turned into the most prominent women’s civil society organizations by helping women throughout Africa to become stewards of the natural environment. The idea of the organization was to setup an organization that would be able to overcome the aspects of environmental degradation. They wanted to be able to give trees back to the environment so that they could help keep soil erosion down, keep water sources clean, filter ozone gases, and give back oxygen to the world. We can use the forests more sustainable in four different ways if we will just think about it. If we as a whole would emphasize the economic value of a forest’s ecological services, protect our old-growth forest, harvest trees no faster than they can replenish, and use a more sustainable substitute resource (Miller Jr., 2007). The
References: Unattributed. (2006, october 12). The green belt movement. Retrieved from http://greenbeltmovement.org/a.php?id=178 The Green Belt Movement. (n.d.). Gbm kenya: Highlights of thirty years of achievements. Retrieved from http://greenbeltmovement.org/w.php?id=33 Miller Jr., G. (2007). Cengage advantage books: Sustaining the earth. (9 ed., p. 119). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole. Retrieved from http://books.google.co.jp/books?id=kiq_xp1Ym8YC&pg=PA133&lpg=PA133&dq=list four ways in which we can use the forests more sustainably&source=bl&ots=7R3L_P5hsj&sig=1JDJGRIHBtV2tWX84KSNOBHMCow Woods holes research center. (2007, December). Retrieved from http://www.whrc.org/policy/pdf/cop13/3-Strategies-Dec-07.pdf