This past week, a news item briefly made headlines as it flew by and was quickly drowned out by the explosions and death of a world gripped in a 24 news cycle that feeds off fear and the associated terror that comes with it. I imagine if terrorism was not covered the way it is, terrorist attacks would not be as prevalent… but that is another story.
Back to the headline you probably missed. On July 11th 2016, India planted almost 50 million trees in a single day, crushing the previous world record by Pakistan of 847,275 trees back in 2013. This news piece is by far one of the most important this month and stands out because it covered what every other news piece did not. Faced with so many problems in recent news cycles ranging from strong climate data that continues to show the acceleration of climate change, the American GOP convention and their adamant stance to be divisive, the rise of hate crimes in the UK following the Brexit vote, to the numerous terror incidents in recent weeks. So many problems, where does one start? How does any country or group begin to focus on solutions?
I would ask a reader to ask himself or herself what comes to mind when they hear that 50 million trees were just planted on a single day? I doubt it has anything to do with despair and at minimum, strikes the chord of “good job!” I would further argue that there is no stronger action than planting a tree in the fight against climate change, violence, or terrorism. Planting a tree fundamentally indicates hope for the future. It indicates a push towards food security, reduction of atmospheric carbon, working towards a common global good, beautification, exercise, and the list goes on. The common threads in these outcomes are that each act as a building block towards peace. Perhaps peace is not currently in the interest of the war machine, mas media, or big corporate fast food giants, but it is in the interest of every man, woman, and child currently and soon to be on earth.
This is why I believe this story was so important to share and it makes the case for humans in our increasingly connected world to decide for themselves what other stories are important; what is worth sharing. Congratulations to India for now holding, perhaps the biggest world record towards realizing world peace. I wonder if there is a country out there “strong enough” to beat it.
