Plea to fight climate change by planting trees

Dubai: If you consider that in one year an average tree inhales 12 kilograms of carbon dioxide, it is in all our interests to plant, or stop destroying, trees. Today is the World Day to Combat Desertification and this year the slogan is "Enhancing soils anywhere enhances life everywhere."

Planting trees is one of the best ways to fight climate change, fight poverty, desertification and deforestation. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), deforestation and agriculture accounts for about one third of global greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification aims to sensitise the public to the fact that desertification, land degradation and drought dramatically affect the biodiversity resident in the soil.

As the UAE lies in a naturally occurring arid environment, only certain trees should be planted that can cope with the levels of ground salinity and scarce water levels. A study by the FAO found that date palm plantations in the UAE produce 5.9 per cent of the world's dates.

"In this International Year of Biodiversity, we must remember that dry lands are areas of enormous biological diversity and productivity. Thirty per cent of the crops that are cultivated and consumed in every corner of the world originate in dry lands. The biodiversity of dry land soil also plays a critical role in transforming atmospheric carbon into organic carbon — the earth's largest pool of organic carbon," said UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.