How to Save Our Planet

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We established that climate change is the BIGGEST threat humanity faces. And we’ve figured out the best ways to mitigate our emissions.

So, you’d think that all we’d have to do now is implement those solutions and poof, we’re golden! The Earth would be healthy and we’d live happily ever after for at least a few more million years.

Well, what if I told you that curbing all our emissions was only ‘Part 1’ of the overall solution.

In reality, we’ve really screwed up so royally, that we now have to undo about 250 years’ worth of human environmental contamination. If we do not take control of our actions and stabilize the environment soon, the Earth, as we know it, could literally become uninhabitable.

NOW is the time to act and make BOLD MOVES.

Let’s REBOOT THE EARTH.

A Hypothetical Future

Okay, let’s say we actually implement all the 15 transformations (and more) to mitigate our emissions and reimagine our civilization. And let’s say the whole world is on board and committed to this plan. (Just go with it – this is my fantasy!)

We are able to reduce our annual greenhouse gas emissions from 50 billion tons (colloquially known as 50 gigatons) to ZERO gigatons in emissions per year. And we achieve the zero-emission milestone by, oh, say, 2075. Definitely an aggressive and a monumental feat, but not implausible. 

So, in order to get to zero by 2075 would mean that we’d have to start decreasing our overall greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Our peak emission year would be in 2037 (at just over 58.5 gigatons).  

We would need to cut our emissions by 0.08 gigatons year over year starting in 2030 to get to 0 emissions by 2075. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but when compounded from 2030 to 2075, we’d see a dramatic drop-off in emissions.

Visually, our emissions by year would look something like this:

Great, no problem! That wasn’t too bad.  We did it! We simply implemented a complete global civilization upheaval and we’ve kicked the global warming problem.

That’s climate change solved in just over 50 years, easy-peasy (…lemon squeezy).

We’re done, right?

Well…  not entirely.

What’s the Issue?

In the intervening years it took us to get our carbon emissions to zero, we’ve casually tossed out an additional average of 43 Gigatons of emissions… per year! On the death march to 2075, we’ve essentially pumped our atmosphere so full of greenhouse gases that we didn’t subvert sh!t in terms of avoiding the worst effects of climate change.

So, while the previous chart shows us getting to zero by 2075, we still would have actually dumped quite a bit of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in the interim. Something to the tune of 2,000 gigatons, a.k.a. 2 TRILLION tons! (or, 2 Teratons! – not sure that’s a word, but I’m going with it.)

Fact Check Needed! I hope someone (with credentials) says something to the contrary, because that’s some scary sh*t! 

In more technical jargon, the carbon dioxide levels would top 550 PPM, which would, in turn, obliterate the UN’s goal to commit to a maximum increase in temperature of 2 degrees Celsius.

This is also assuming the planet’s natural carbon sinks can keep sucking up 22.5 gigatons per year, which is highly doubtful since all the Earth’s biogeochemical systems would probably be FUBAR (look it up) at this stage in the game. 

And the sad part is, these are fairly conservative numbers!

So, the point is, when 2075 rolls around, even though we aren’t producing any more greenhouse gases, all the emissions we produced while getting to zero wouldn’t just magically disappear.

Even if we completely stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, it would take several hundred years before the majority of human emissions were removed from the atmosphere through natural processes.

I mean, sure, we tackled all the transformations the best we could. Hell, we got to zero emissions, right? And that’s definitely better than doing nothing, that’s for sure. But we’ll still see the worst of climate change because of all the added carbon we dumped into the atmosphere along the way. 

Devastation across the planet will show up in the form of more frequent hurricanes, more powerful storms, rising sea levels, melted Arctic and Antarctic poles, desertification, forest fires, mass animal extinctions, habitat collapse, food chain failure, plummeting crop yields, starvation of the worlds’ poor, and water scarcity. These are just a few of the calamities we’re likely to face.

I’d be surprised if the economic or financial markets would survive all that. Meaning, on top of all the environmental devastation, anarchy and societal breakdown could be a real possibility.

Well… yeah… shit.

Should We Just Give Up?

Well unless you got a backup planet to go to or just want to see humanity and the planet go to hell in a hand-basket, then, sure, you can give up. But, I believe the majority of us want to survive and, not only that, thrive.

In order to thrive, we need to step up to the biggest challenge in human history.

And we need a BOLD PLAN!

So, are you still with me?!

GOOD! Now, let’s attack the problems!

Problem #1: We have to get to zero emissions as a civilization.

Answer: Tackle all the solutions in A Reimagined World – CHECK!

Problem #2: We have to somehow return the biosphere to its natural state, before humanity mucked it up.

Answer: Suck all the extraneous greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and return the biosphere to pre-industrial norms.

Umm…okay, so, how the heck do we do that? Well, there’s a way, but it isn’t going to be easy or make everyone happy.

When monumental change was necessary in the past, there were always some people who pushed back. This time will be no different. We will need to have a strong resolve to do what is necessary to save the planet.

Believe me, I wish we weren’t in the predicament we find ourselves in today; but here we are, and now it’s time to do something about it. We can either accept our doomed fate as a species, if we do nothing. Or, we can choose to do something about it and aspire to create a future we can all be proud of.

I just want to backup for a second and acknowledge that all the foundational work, up to this point, has set us up for what comes next. Getting the next steps right could make or break the future of humanity and, really, all life. This is the ultimate hurdle we have to go through in order to see a glorious Grand Future.

So, yeah, kind of a big deal – at least for me! 

Follow along as I walk-through the main pillars of a systematic plan that will save our planet!

A Breath of Fresh Air

We have to literally return the Earth’s atmospheric greenhouse gas levels back to the planet’s natural baseline. For our purposes, we can assume our baseline is a Pre-Industrial Revolution world, before fossil fuel usage became universal. Essentially, on or around the founding of America in 1776 would be a good target baseline year to shoot for. 

So, not only do we have to somehow extract all the greenhouse gases that we’ve dumped into the atmosphere over the last 250 years, but all future emissions we’ll continue to add over the time it takes us to get to an emission-free world.

Definitely a pretty daunting responsibility, for sure.

The good news is that people all over the world are working on amazing solutions to capture carbon from the atmosphere. Carbon can actually be removed, collected, and stored or buried deep in the Earth’s crust. Down there it interacts with minerals to make a solid compound and remove its effects from the atmosphere altogether. (You can read more about one of the companies, Climeworks, doing just that in Iceland.)

After all, it makes sense to return carbon to the ground since that’s initially where all our fossil fuels originated. If we could get these carbon sequestration plants up and running all over the world we could be in business.

Now, for the bad news… Unfortunately, the scale needed to accomplish any meaningful carbon capture and sequestration is astronomical in terms of manpower, resources, and money. It just isn’t feasible without A LOT of buy in and money from all the world’s nations.

What else can we can do?

Maybe our solution can be gleaned by looking at the natural world around us.

Looking at the chart below we can see the red line is the actual carbon dioxide parts per million (PPM) in the atmosphere measured in Hawaii over the last 5 years. While the black line is showing the average PPM of CO₂ increasing over time. What’s curious about the graph is the cyclical dip we see every year. Why is this?

Well, if you haven’t figured it out it’s a seasonal trend that occurs every year. Here’s a snapshot of just one year with the actual CO₂ PPM values:

Why is there a dip every year starting in May/June(ish) to only then go back up again in October/November?

I’ll tell you why this happens. The dip in carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration coincides with spring in the northern hemisphere. Vegetation starts blooming and all those photosynthesizing plants need some of the CO₂ in the atmosphere to come back to life. The miracle of spring and the renewal of life is really one of the world’s greatest natural wonders.

But why the northern hemisphere? It just so happens that most of the world’s landmass is located in the northern hemisphere – 68% of the world’s land area, in fact. Thus, it’s reasonable to assume that most of the world’s plants are also concentrated in the northern hemisphere, as well.

So interestingly enough, plant life effects the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Plants act as mother nature’s carbon storage repositories! And trees are among the most efficient plants at gathering and storing carbon dioxide. Hence why forests are some of the world’s biggest natural carbon sinks. 

Trees are the lungs of the planet.

Well, the next question is –

How many trees would we need to suck up all that excess greenhouse gas?

Only A …

TRILLION.

Yup, that’s it! Adding about 1 trillion trees will negate everyone’s carbon footprint. The average world citizen produces 15,000 lbs. of greenhouse gases per year.

But we’re not trying to negate the emissions for every person on the planet at our current level.  We’re trying to suck out all the excess atmospheric greenhouse emissions that already has been AND will be released from 1776 to 2075 (300 years).

This amount should be lower every year because we’ve been eliminating all the activities that produce greenhouse gases on our way to 2075, right?!

Our original goal is to return greenhouse gas levels to where they were in 1776. If we plan on removing the 2,000 gigatons of excess greenhouse gases using 1 trillion trees, it’ll still take us 90 years to return to pre-industrial era norms!

The question going through your head right now might be “Well, 1 trillion trees seems like a lot.”

And well, you’re right… a lot doesn’t even begin to describe it!

Current estimates put the total global tree population at 3 trillion, so we’d need to plant 33% more trees than there currently exists.

Some estimates say humanity has eliminated half the wild areas and, consequently, half the tree population since beginning of the agricultural age. Considering this, we’d just be replanting and re-populating only some of the trees we’ve cut down over time. We’re simply trying to return the Earth back to its default natural state.

In the last 100 years alone, we went from a planet covered by 70% in forests to a planet covered by only 35% in forests. So, in essence, we would just be returning this land area back to its rightful use by restoring habitats and replanting trees on this scale.

But just to give you a reference point: 1 trillion trees, if planted with a density of 200 trees per acre (which is slightly packed), will require an area about the size of Russia!

This seems very daunting. And it is. But we screwed up and now it’s on us to get the planet back into working order before it’s too late. Permanent damage to habitats all around the world is a very real possibility, if we do nothing.

BOLD action is necessary to get the world functioning properly for future generations.

A great society plants trees under which they do not expect to sit.

That being said, the goal of 1 Trillion trees, is definitely a very lofty goal by any stretch of the imagination.

The problem is, if we reduce the number of trees planted, we’ll extend the timeline out. So, say instead, we only plant half a trillion trees. That means we’ll double our timeline, so it will take 180 years to cleanse the greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Still, it took us 300 years to get to this situation, it’s not going to be remedied overnight. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

A Matter of Scale

First of all, I just want to set the record straight: an area the size of Russia isn’t readily available. (if you know of that much empty land in one spot – let me know!)

In a way, our tree planting initiative would mimic the implementation of mass solar power generation. Tree groves would have to be implemented in both a distributed fashion (i.e. mini tree-parks), at the localized level, while also setting aside bigger areas for more massive tree plantations. 

Through the combination of micro-groves and macro-scale tree farms placed all over the world we can meet our goal. And before you know it, we’ll have added a forested area the size of Russia back into the carbon cycle.

The planting of a trillion trees would need to happen all over the world. This would have to be a global initiative. It could be done right in our backyards by decreasing lawn area or by increasing park land in favor of forests (and less mowing!). If simple ideas like these could be implemented by everyone, we’d make good dent in sequestering carbon. The little wins do add up!

This is easier to grasp on a micro level. A grass-roots campaign to create gardens of tree groves could also be beneficial wherever unused space is available in our towns and cities. We’ll also need a renewed crusade to protect and repopulate forests that were cut down.

More land areas will need to be protected for environmental purposes from commercial and residential development. People already want green areas near their homes. They want to conserve natural spaces. Let’s keep going!

Unfortunately, in a lot of undeveloped countries, humans are still taking over wild areas and chopping down forests for their own use. They will need to be educated and measures will have to be put into place to stop this reckless destruction.

This is a great start on the local level, but yes, now we’ll have to create massive new forests on a macro scale. 

Question is –

How and where do we plant almost a trillion trees?

Pillar I: Boundless Forest Plantations

The beautiful thing about using trees to suck up all the excess greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is that they are a passive form of carbon sequestration. What I mean by that, is once a tree is planted, it effectively works on its own without any external human intervention.

We don’t have to hire people to maintain trees or require spare parts to fix complicated machinery. Nope, they just operate on their own, each merrily sucking in 50 lbs. of carbon dioxide each a year.

Now we just have to get a plan in place to plant all of those trees!

First question is: Where the heck are we going to plant all those trees?

What if I told you that we have all the land we could ever need for all these massive forest plantations?

You’d probably say, “Prove it!”

Well… I Will!

Let’s take a look at the breakdown of Earth’s surface area:

The areas that make up “barren land” and “shrub land” are almost triple the size we’ll need to plant a trillion trees.  And well, they’re not really doing much of anything right now.  We can put a lot of that land to good use in helping sequester all those greenhouse gases.

Barren land is composed of a few different areas including deserts, mountains, rocky, and icy regions. Indeed, a decent amount of this land is not really usable (without a lot of work). But, in truth, deserts are virtually untapped and represent an unlimited amount of potential if handled correctly.

On a similar note, shrub land is what I like to refer of as ‘half-crappy’ land (I also like to refer to it as scrub land in my mind: shrub + crap).  You’ll know it when you see it, but it’s basically land that doesn’t have much growing on it.  In the US, the Midwest and Southwest have endless miles of this type of land. It’s usually pretty dry with dirt, some shrubs, and sparse grasses. It appears not to be doing much of anything.  Here’s an example:

That’s all well and great, but they’re called barren and shrub land for a reason… Nothing really grows there. 

Well, I beg to differ. Things can grow in deserts and scrub land. Humans have grown plants on land just like this for literally millennia. The ancient Mesopotamian civilization thrived and grew crops in the desert.

Even today, Egypt is undertaking a massive project called Toshka, or the New Valley Project, in the Sahara Desert. The project eventually aims to cultivate one million acres of desert to grow wheat and other crops to feed the swelling Egyptian population.

Whole ecosystems can grow out of deserts, shrub lands, and badlands. One only needs to practice sustainable agriculture methods in order to bring life to these barren places. (Here are more examples, check out this video, this one, or even this guy!)

We don’t cultivate these lands often because… well, it’s hard! Growing life in areas that don’t have the necessary ingredients is challenging, but not impossible. Humanity has basically used all the existing fertile lands for our own purposes. Now it’s time to think outside the box and utilize other options. 

Planting and growing trees will have a number of benefits. The trees will enrich the soil, naturally encourage biodiversity, prevent erosion, and bring new animal life to the region. 

Shrub land and deserts are the key areas we could repurpose to suck all the excess greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and store it in useful plant life. Hopefully, a lot of the white and tan areas on the map will turn green with our newly grown tree plantations. 

Trees will literally save the world from frying itself. We will be cleansing the Earth and restoring it back to its native state: A pristine and green new world.

The World is not ours to keep. We hold it in trust for future generations.

We will convert these misbegotten lands into bountiful forests that will ensure our planet is viable for thousands of years. The once barren places of the world can turn into beautiful forests that will support our entire biosphere.

Now we just have to figure how to grow a trillion trees on this land…

Pillar II: Unlimited Clean Water

There is a universal truth that encompasses all life on Earth. All lifeforms need water to survive (to varying degrees). Trees are no different.

This might seem obvious, but one reason life doesn’t thrive in the desert is because, for one, there’s no water flowing!

But didn’t we say we wanted to plant a trillion trees in the arid areas all over the globe?… Yep!

That means we’ll have to somehow get water to these arid areas. This is not a novel concept. Humans have channeled water to where they needed it for thousands of years. Water is a necessary requirement for humans, plants, and animals to prosper on a plot of land. 

Okay, so step 1, we’ll have to transport water to the arid lands and make them fertile. Now, where do we get the water?

Here’s the bad news: Only about 1% of all the Earth’s water is freshwater. On top of that, 90% of that freshwater is in the ground. Meaning only 0.1% is surface water that’s easily accessible in rivers, lakes, swamps, etc. (and even then, the water has to be treated, depending on the use). Additionally, surface water sources vary greatly depending on location in both supply and availability.

However, there is a very, very large and untapped ‘reservoir’ of water. The world’s oceans make up 71% of the surface area of the planet and touches every landmass. The ocean will provide our unlimited water supply!

I know what you’re thinking: isn’t the ocean…well, salty? And salt water doesn’t really play nice to encourage plant life to grow. And you’d be right.

But I have one word for you: DESALINATION.

Desalination is the process of removing salt from seawater.

This is the answer to all our water woes.  Desalination will enable us to convert our barren deserts into green oases, full of life.

Desalination is not widely used because it is expensive and not efficient as using readily available freshwater. Thus, the technology hasn’t really took off in a meaningful way, until now. With more frequent droughts (especially in the Middle East), desalination is getting traction and attention in a big way.  

There are an estimated 21,000 desalinization plants, worldwide.  Some of the biggest can convert, get this… 370 MILLION GALLONS of sea water to freshwater EVERY DAY!

Because of the need for water in many areas of the world, the technology has gotten better, costs are decreasing, and the efficiency is improving.

Without getting into the technical side too much there are several ways to desalinate water. (and if you want to read more about them check out the Desalination Wiki Page. But for our purposes, there are two main methods of desalination: membrane-based and thermal-based.

Membrane-based desalination methods use semi permeable membranes to filter the salt from the freshwater. While thermal-based desalination methods, as the name implies, uses heat (and thus, more energy) to convert from salt to freshwater. Within each method there are several different approaches that can be used.

The big picture here is that we have the ability to turn sea-water into freshwater. Either method, will use quite a bit of energy when used on this scale. We’re getting better at playing with the variables and making adjustments to streamline the processes.

If we want to plant a trillion trees, we’ll need A LOT of fresh water, which also means we’ll need quite a bit of power to convert all that saltwater.

That begs the question:

Where are we going to get the energy to power the desalination for a trillion trees?

Pillar III: Limitless Renewable Energy

Of course, just as we’ll power our reimagined civilization with clean energy sources, we’ll want to use renewable energy to power the desalination plants supplying our massive tree plantations as well. 

Superficially, energy production isn’t the problem. It’s the way we currently produce energy that is the problem. By relying on fossil fuels to make electricity, we’re adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere as unwanted by-products. 

We basically have to scrap all the fossil fuel-based plants that are currently producing electricity. This will take a lot of time, effort, and investment to go green, but if we want to dig ourselves out of the climate change hell-hole we find ourselves in, there is no other choice.

After all, we’d just be shooting ourselves in the foot. Plant all those trees to soak up greenhouse gases. Only to then burn more greenhouse gases to make electricity for fresh water for those same trees. It just doesn’t make sense. We need to capture greenhouse gases AND produce clean energy; that’s all there is to it.

Converting salt to fresh water for our trillion-tree project will not be a trivial amount of power. By building in extra power requirements into the Energy Revolution, we’ll be able to have all the power we’ll ever need. Since we can’t run out of sun or wind, why not capture all we can!    

This is not a novel idea. If we’re serious, a complete overhaul is needed.  We already know the entire world’s energy production needs to shift from a dependence on fossil fuels to 100% clean renewable energy as fast as possible. Solar and wind are the most promising solutions for a renewable civilization.

Solar and Wind Power are our best tools for powering the future!

The trillion tree project’s desalination requirements will piggyback on our society’s transformation to 100% clean energy. The use of coal, oil, gas, and natural gas will be completely eliminated. 

Solar panels and wind turbines provide the key solutions for powering the desalination plants, which will, in turn, provide all the fresh water our beautiful little trees will ever need.

Putting ‘The System’ Together

The barren lands of the world will provide the space we need to take on the massive geoengineering projects we’ll need to save our planet.  

We have millions of miles of vacant desert and desert-like land areas all over the world that are breezy and soaked in sunlight pretty much year-round. Let’s put some of that property to good use!

Let’s focus on the United States for a minute. I’ve driven through A LOT of the west, and plainly speaking, for the most part, there’s not much of anything going on – in terms of vegetation, believe me.  These lands are pretty desolate. They are dry with very meager plant life.

As you can see, the area in the red circle is virtually devoid of vegetation. This area makes up 3/4 of the lower 48 states. Even if only 30% of that is usable for our purposes that still makes up a HUGE swath of serviceable area.

We can turn desert wastelands into a hub for both electricity generation and lush forests for natural carbon storage. There is such an abundance of space and potential energy that we can tackle the“One Trillion Trees” plan AND provide enough power for people’s daily activities. Yes, it is possible!

Areas like this are all over the world. They are sparsely inhabited by both humanity and wildlife. These areas would provide the necessary land, we’d need to setup all operations: from the construction of renewable energy sources and desalination plants, to the creation of tree plantations.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

We’re, essentially, going to turn our current scrub lands from this:

And, through our big engineering projects, convert all that barren land into this:

This simplistic depiction is the BOLD, big picture systematic plan we’ll need to implement to save the planet.

This holistic approach to greening the deserts uses the 3 pillars described above: I – Forest Plantations, II – Clean Water, and III – Renewable Energy. These key pillars, working together, make for very effective weapons in our fight against global warming.

In essence, the system as a whole, harnesses the unlimited energy provided by the wind and sun to create fresh water. This fresh water is used to provide the trees with an essential building block of life and allow them to grow in an otherwise resource-poor location.

With this holistic approach, we’ll kick climate change’s a$$ and trap greenhouse gases in vast forested natural carbon sinks.

Just a subjectively small amount of human input on the front end to establish the solar arrays, wind turbines, and desalination plants, could turn huge tracts of unusable barren land into veritable nature preserves. 

When combined with the transformations for reimagining our civilization, it is a beautifully simple strategy to save our biosphere. Better yet, once the ‘ball gets rolling’, our efforts can be leveraged with the built-in passiveness of the plan and economies of scale inherent in the solutions.

Tying Up The Loose Ends

Of course, the explanation describes ‘the system’ from the 10,000-foot overview. There are many other hurdles we’ll need to clear in order to get it up and running.

First thing: How are we going to transport water to the deserts?

This isn’t an insurmountable undertaking, but yes, it’ll definitely take some work. We’ve laid down railroads, electric lines, pipes, and dug canals across the entire world for the last 250 years.  Now, we have machinery that make building projects that much easier.

Pre-making some water pipes and laying them in is definitely in the realm of something we can do. And will also provide a ton of jobs in the process!

On top of that, all those old oil pipes could theoretically be repurposed to transport water, since we shouldn’t be using fossil fuels anymore… right? 

In addition, the world produces about 400 million tons of plastic waste every year. All that plastic waste could be recycled and repurposed into piping the water to our trillion trees. Finally, a recycling program with an objective and a great purpose!

Planting a trillion trees will take some time and quite some manpower.  However, we live in the 21^st century and as such have new, incredible technology at our disposal.

Why do we need to plant the trees by hand when we can have robots do it? I’m specifically talking about drones. They never get tired and can work 24/7 as long as they have a charged battery. The batteries can be swapped out at a moments’ notice for a fully charged battery (from renewable energy sources).

These “tree drones” could be used as tree planters and caretakers instead of human labor. At first, the drones would be tasked to follow automated routes to plant trees (even better if AI software can be used!). A drone could literally plant hundreds of new trees a day. Multiply that by, say, a million drones and you have a potent recipe to get a lot of trees planted.

Each drone would be in charge of a specific area. The drones would plant pre-grown saplings with intact root systems. By also attaching a nutrient-rich “care package” to the roots, the trees would have an extra advantage and the necessary ingredients they’ll need to start their new life.

Once all the trees are planted, the drones would go into ‘maintenance mode’ and have pre-scheduled nanny duties. They would make cyclical rounds in their assigned zones to disperse nutrients and compost to each of the trees.  

Where would the compost and nutrients come from?  Easy – ALL OUR FOOD WASTE. 

Collectively, we waste up to 40% of our food. Instituting a robust, nationwide compost program to recapture, decompose, and reuse this waste to use as food-stuff for our tree plantations would be a game-changer. People everywhere could take pride in knowing the they’re directly helping to save the planet!

Geoengineering on this scale will be the biggest undertaking of our generation (and probably multiple generations to come). I’m not going to sugar coat it, this will require a lot of work, but it is definitely not impossible. 

I cannot stress it enough, we can only hope to build A Grand Future together, if we first eliminate the production of greenhouse gases. Only then, can we start to put these pillars into place to recoup the excess greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The pillars are not meant to be substituted for the greenhouse gas drawdown solutions. We’ll have to do both, if we want to see a brighter tomorrow – we have no other choice.

Even More Benefits!

The great part about ‘the system’ is that the individual pillars can be scaled up to do more than just support our tree plantations. The biggest problems in the world can all be tackled and mediated in one fell swoop. 

For instance, since we definitely want renewable energy as our main energy source, solar and wind farms can be scaled up so that power can be diverted to our homes and businesses as well (depicted as ‘A’ in the below diagram). Households and businesses would benefit greatly from the unlimited and, practically, untapped capacity that renewable energy represents.

We don’t just have to stop at only providing electricity for our clean water conversion and tree use. This model meshes nicely with the reimagined world initiatives too. The electricity can be used by everyone!

We’re tackling one of the reimagined world transformations AND a save the world pillar! And just like that, we’re killing two birds with one stone (proverbially speaking of course – I like birds).

Additionally, the current world’s population just topped 8 billion. And, contrary to popular belief, the population is still growing. That’s a lot of mouths to feed. Some estimates put us close to 10 billion people by 2050. People are living longer too, so we’ll definitely need more food to feed the masses.

Scaling the ‘clean water’ pillar up would provide many options in the face of our water scarcity demands. As with trees, to grow things, we’ll need water and LOTS of it. Fresh water can be used to produce agriculture too. Since all plants need water to grow – duh!

By piggy backing on the ‘greening the desert’ project, we can expand our desert footprint to include and create sustainable farmland too. The desert doesn’t have to only be used as an oasis for trees, but can be made into plentiful gardens, as well (depicted as ‘B’ above). 

Furthermore, we’ll need more water for irrigation, household use, or fighting and preventing forest fires. Our drone fleet could even be bulked up to help prevent the tragic forest fires we’ve experienced over the last few decades. Drones could be on the patrol to look for budding forest fires and activate an alarm while the fire is small. They could be the first line of defense against forest fires.

Made to be a little larger, drones could even carry a small water reserve. These fire fighter drones would be tasked to keep things a little ‘moist’ in existing forests throughout areas prone to fire as a preventative measure. In the event of an actual fire, they could call on their fellow compatriots to swarm and douse the fire.

Meanwhile, in the US, man-made reservoirs in the Southwest, like Lake Powell or Lake Mead, are at all-time lows. These reservoirs currently provide water for a lot of the people living in the southwest. They are now rationing because there isn’t enough water to go around. We’ll be able to refill whole reservoirs with clean water and create many more reserves. (depicted as ‘C’ in the diagram above) 

And let’s not forget the biggest win of all: an UNLIMITED supply of clean, fresh, drinking water. The 900 million people of the world currently without access to this basic human necessity would never have to worry about water again.  By beefing up our desalination efforts, we’ll be able to address all these issues and more. 

Building the infrastructure for the reimagined world transformations and employing the pillars – desalination plants, solar, wind, and tree farms will be humankind’s chief responsibility over the next century. Implementing these monumental projects will finally defeat humanity’s biggest problems.

Saving Our Planet

The ‘Saving Our Planet’ framework goes hand in hand with the Reimagined World transformations. We need to execute and fully commit to both plans if we want to see life on Earth thrive for millennia.

Transforming all our daily activities to not be dependent on fossil fuels is imperative. It’s not going to happen overnight. It took literally centuries to build up to where we are. It’ll take decades more to transition away from our current fossil fuel dependent society. And that’s only with a lot of determination.

When we get a completely sustainable, zero carbon emission civilization fully online, people will be able to have access to an unlimited array of clean energy options, services, and products.  Standards of living will increase 100-fold in all parts of the world because energy and access to the “green new ways” will be ubiquitous. The once poor of the world will be able to have luxuries they could only dream of in the past. 

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second-best time is now.

– Old Chinese Proverb

In the meantime, we’ll still have to contend with the lingering effects of three centuries of greenhouse gases leftover in the atmosphere. This is why executing the ‘save the planet pillars’ are so important. By implementing the pillars to restore greenhouse gases to pre-industrial era levels, we’ll return stability and balance to the Earth’s fragile ecosystems and biosphere. 

Restoring habitats and planting as many trees as possible provides an elegant and simple solution in absorbing excess greenhouse gases. And best of all, if we put in the work upfront, then humanity and the planet can reap the passive benefits for all time (with minimal maintenance). A relatively small amount of human intervention to get these arid lands viable, could yield forests of incredible size.

We’ll be able to reset the planet to its natural state, where humanity and all life will flourish well into the foreseeable future. If we get both the pillars and the transformations implemented, we will usher in a new golden age for humankind.

We are now being called on. We are at a single, pivotal moment in history. We’re in a situation, where we need to act.

Only now, with our accumulated knowledge, can we meet the enormous demands of problem we face.

We have the reason to act and only now do we have the resources to undertake this mission. The whole face of the world will have to change for our goals to be realized. Geoengineering on this scale has never been done before. Humanity has never attempted a dream of this magnitude.

It won’t be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is. This is a war against time and a war we cannot afford to lose. All life depends on what we do now.

All we need now is the will to do what is required of us. Let’s not let our children and their children down.

We need a simple and BOLD PLAN to carry humanity toward the best possible future.

Look No Further.

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