Plants are first responders
working hard to solve global and climate change. Plants are the super heroes of natural resources.
Earth and human challenges
Earth’s problems occur in the living world, natural resources, land and water use, energy resources and consumption, and pollution.
Humans add to global warming and global change – cutting down trees, covering earth with buildings and roads so plants don’t grow, burning fossil fuels which increase carbon dioxide and other gases, all increasing Earth’s temperature.
We see the results of warming – hotter seasons, devastating weather events, species extinction, ice caps melting, and lakes drying out…
It can make you feel frustrated and powerless.
But putting plants in your daily life in some way can help.
WHY?
Plants take in carbon dioxide, release oxygen in photosynthesis, anchor soil, shade the environment, make beautiful green spaces, make habitat for animals, feed us, house us, reduce flooding, protect ecosystems and provide energy.
Planting, conserving and protecting plants are answers to Earth’s environmental challenges. Personal daily actions can conserve and protect plants. Green plant action can happen in your own yard, in the community, and globally.
Plant solutions for sustainability can be on your own, with schools, local government and initiatives, or with activist organizations.
Plants are the Answer in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Ambitious, thoughtful, inclusive and action-oriented, the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals nail down Earth’s and humanity’s challenges.
6 of the 17 "Goals to Transform Our World"
include Plants as an Answer.
Whatever you ate today was a plant, or eaten by an animal that ate a plant.
Worldwide, people depend on plants for energy.
How land is used includes plants – absent or present.
Tree lined streets have a lower incidence of crime.
Plants are natural resources for the food we eat, the goods we use and the energy we need.
Plants are part of the big picture of climate change in a warming world.
Plants are the basis for all land ecosystems.
Their structure and energy guide animals and their habitat.