Every municipality in Spain plants 4 to 8 trees for every 1,000 inhabitants each year, along with thousands of shrub plants. That’s the average. It may seem like a lot, but it isn’t because barely half of all the trees planted survive.
Right now, there are 3 billion trees on the planet, or the same thing, 400 trees for every person living in it. To see if it’s too much or too little, you have to consider that each person needs 8,000 liters of oxygen per day to breathe, that is, 22 trees that produce oxygen at full capacity. It’s just what we’re consuming, we’ll have to add to that amount what other animals on the planet need. In addition, many of these trees die each year, and the majority of those planted in their place never grow. In fact, it’s estimated that 10 percent of the existing tree population in cities, and worse yet, one in every two newly planted trees, is lost each year.
The reason for such a high death rate is mainly due to human action. The causes can be as global as climate change itself, or as close as a poor planting, improper irrigation, insufficient pruning, exposure to aggressive toxins or constant work in the environment. For this reason, at least 7 trees should be planted for each lost tree to compensate for the losses and ensure that each one lives for at least 30 years.
Until recently, these were all just percentage-based recommendations, but they are no longer so. Everyone now agrees that the survival of our civilization and the animals with whom we share the planet depends on continual afforestation. Trees are necessary for breathing, yes, but also for shaping life. They form the landscape, fill it with color and become shelter and home for many animals. This is no small thing, if we don’t take care of them we will kill the world and on this occasion, this is not a false prophecy. It’s just science.