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MALTATODAY 21 July 2019

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SO let me get this straight: after decades warning us that our planet is spiralling towards self-destruction because of cli- mate change… scientists have finally given us all a tiny glim- mer of hope for the future. We are still in time to miti- gate the effects of global warm- ing, they tell us: not through some fancy new technology costing billions; and not even (necessarily) by making painful sacrifices in our daily lifestyle. All we have to do is 'plant a trillion trees'. There, that doesn't sound too difficult, does it? Sure, you'd need a lot of land: a luxury Malta doesn't exactly have right now (though you'd never guess from the way we consist- ently just build up every square inch of available space… for all the world as though 'land' were some kind of infinite resource…) But on a global level? Are we to understand that 'planting a trillion trees' is simply beyond the collective capabilities of the 195 countries that make up the geo-political map of Planet Earth? Reason I ask is that… well, that's what it looks like right now. We've been told that we have to plant a trillion trees to save our own species from ex- tinction; and for some unearth- ly reason, the general reaction has been to pooh-pooh the idea as an 'impossibility'. 'Plant a trillion trees? Are you out of your mind? Do you have any idea how much a trillion is? It's a thousand billion, for crying out loud…' Yeah, well, that is also roughly how many trees we have man- aged to fell in around 50 years of global deforestation. There was, after all, a time – admit- tedly very long ago – when a single squirrel could hop from tree to tree, all the way from northern Scandinavia to the southernmost tip of South Africa. And ironically, it is the com- pressed remains of those very primeval forests that constitute much of the oil and coal that we now burn to produce ener- gy, and pump more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Even more ironically, this also means that 'planting a trillion trees' today, would actually work out as an investment in the future of the fossil fuels in- dustry itself (though you would have to wait a few million years to see any return). But that's just an aside. The part I really don't get in all this is… since when is it harder to chop a tree down, than to plant a new one? All it takes to clear away acres of forest, the way we still do every day, is labour and man-power. Nothing more, nothing less. Why, then, should it take anything more to reverse the process, and em- bark on a global reforestation programme? To put that into context: let's imagine it was the other way round. Let's pretend that those scientists said 'cut down a trillion trees', instead of plant them. My guess is that we'd have done it in the space of a week. We would have sent out entire armies equipped with axes and chainsaws – like we already do in places like Bor- neo, to produce more palm-oil – and, hey presto! A trillion trees, and more, would all be gone in the bat of an eyelid. Problem solved. For the life of me, then, I can't understand how a species which seems perfectly capable of destroying entire tropical rainforests – not to mention landing people on the Moon, planning missions to Mars, etc. – should not be equally capable of reforesting their own planet through a dedicated tree-plant- ing programme. All it would take, in practice, is a firm commitment from at least the most developed of those 195 countries, to do (and financially help other countries to do) what we are told is the only thing that might actually prevent the world from becom- ing uninhabitable in the near future. Just plant a f***ing trillion trees, damn it. What's stopping us from doing that, anyway? There is nothing – absolutely nothing whatsoever – that is 'impossible' about it at all. Except, perhaps, for one small thing. Time and again, it has proved beyond humanity's capabilities to ever agree on a course of action that is ben- eficial (in this case, critically vital) to the environment… but doesn't make anybody any richer. And that's the only thing that seems to be holding us back. There is no money to be made – and plenty to be spent – out of doing what we all know we should be doing, even to save our own skins. Which leads me to the un- comfortable conclusion that… well, maybe our skins aren't worth saving after all. Maybe we really do deserve to be wiped off the face of this planet by our own myopic greed. But there is another side to this dilemma. Not only are we avoiding the one course of action left to us to save our planet… but – here in Malta, at any rate – we seem to be enthusiastically doing the very opposite. We are removing trees, to widen roads. That is to say, we are taking away the one thing that has the power to re-absorb some of the carbon we are pumping into the atmosphere… to create more space for more things that will only belch out more (and more, and more, and more) of the greenhouses gases that are slowly killing us all. And what makes this almost pathologically irresponsible, is that we are doing this in full awareness of the consequences. The Central Link project is not just about removing trees from where they are needed most… because at least, there is the promise to plant more trees elsewhere. No, the problem concerns the declared motive for this senseless act. The only reason we are going ahead with this lunacy is to make it easier for people to drive their cars (oh yeah, and also to give out a few lucrative roadworks contracts): at a time when government's official (but evidently forgotten) traffic management plan is actually geared towards the clean op- posite goal. We are – according to gov- ernment's own policy targets, anyway – supposed to be reducing vehicular traffic in Malta, not increasing it. And there is even a study by the Transport Authority which concludes that widening roads would only result in more con- gestion further down the line. So, the Central Link project is already destined to produce the opposite of its intended result. It might ease traffic flow in the short-term… but only until the wider roads become equally congested by the never-ending influx of more and more cars to fill the extra space. And what then? We widen those roads even further… re- moving more trees, eating into more agricultural land, displac- ing more communities… and for what, anyway? So that we'll just have to repeat the process again, and again, and again… until there's no more space to widen them any further? Meanwhile, there are ancil- lary consequences that have a direct bearing on climate change itself. Malta admit- tedly cannot do much about the problem on a global level (though I still strongly feel we should at least be doing our own bit, however small); but this doesn't mean we will be spared the effects of rising tem- peratures. 24 OPINION maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 JULY 2019 Raphael Vassallo Cutting down trees to widen roads is not just wrong. It is evil Senior Professional Officer - Notary Public Jobplus Permit Number – 546/2019 In possession of a law degree and a valid warrant to practice as a Public Notary in Malta and Gozo. Having previously worked in other legal roles. CAREER OPPORTUNITY Lands Authority is seeking applications from interested persons to fill the following position: WE ARE RECRUITING ESSENTIAL Qualifications Experience Interested persons are kindly requested to submit a letter of application and a detailed CV only by email, as one pdf document to: hr.la@landsauthority. org.mt by Monday 29th July 2019. Emails are to indicate the position being applied for and the name of the applicant in the subject. Applications will be acknowledged and treated in strictest confidence. For more information visit the link below: https://landsauthority.org.mt/about-us/careers/

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