In the fight against global warming, the challenge is sometimes thought to be too big and you can be quickly discouraged...
And yet...
With this extraordinary initiative, we once again have proof that nothing is impossible :-)
A world record has thus been broken in India:
more than 800,000 people came together to plant 50 million trees in a single day ! Watch:
By distributing these millions of trees to the population of Uttar Pradesh, a huge state in India, the political leaders knew that it would have a huge echo.
This is the Guinness record that has indeed been exploded with the planting of this "army of trees" in just 24 hours.
Since 2013, Pakistan held the title with 847,275 trees planted.
This time, everyone got involved:farmers, students, teachers, lawyers, officials, etc.
One by one, they planted the trees along long ledges, in holes that had been prepared beforehand.
But the purpose of this world record was obviously not purely media...
Uttar Pradesh Prime Minister Akhilesh Yadav said the record was meant to draw attention to fundamental issues.
"We have all made this commitment so that the next generations will inherit a healthy and quality environment," Yadav explained.
Deforestation and global warming are indeed particularly sensitive in a country where we must meet the challenge of feeding more than 1.3 billion inhabitants.
Torrential rains, severe droughts... These populations are also very vulnerable to climate change.
Trees, on the other hand, protect the soil and produce food.
And, most importantly, they help remove CO2 and regulate the climate.
Through this positive and collective initiative, it is therefore a question of creating a momentum around the question of the defense of the environment.
"The world is starting to realize that big efforts are now needed to reduce our carbon emissions.
It is essential to limit the effects of global warming. And Uttar Pradesh wants to engage in this fight..." recalls Mr Yadav.
India's central government has called on all Indian states to emulate the Uttar Pradesh initiative.
For this, 6.2 billion dollars have been released.
India aims to increase the area of its forests to 96 million hectares by 2030.
Quite a challenge, huh?! :-)
It is hoped that other countries in the world will follow this example...
