Customers in the United States can donate $1 to plant a tree by instructing Alexa-enabled devices, “Alexa, grow a tree,” starting today, Amazon stated. Customers may keep track of how many trees they’ve planted with their Amazon Pay account.
Amazon also announced a $1 million donation to One Tree Planted, the environmental nonprofit with which it is collaborating on the campaign.
The funds will be used to fund four initiatives in the United States and India. The funding will be used to reforest land that has been burned for mining, logging, and agricultural in Centre County, Pennsylvania.
According to One Tree Planted, “hardworking foresters will devote time to promote improved vegetation planning and resource management” in California to avoid wildfires from raging out of control.
Newly planted trees along rivers and streams in the Pacific Northwest are expected to help keep water clean for salmon spawning grounds, which orca whales rely on for food. The fruit trees planted in India will “fight hunger, enhance local economies, and prevent climate change,” according to the campaign.
Given the magnitude of the claims and the complexity of the difficulties, it’s important to take such efforts with a grain of salt.
Your $1 donation may plant a tree, but it doesn’t guarantee that the tree will live long enough to complete the task at hand, whether it’s feeding a community, reforesting a mountain, or restoring salmon habitat.
In general, there are a few dangers that tree-planting programs must avoid if they are to be successful in the long run. Organizations must ensure that they are planting the correct tree in the correct environment, and local community members must be on board.
Otherwise, these kind of initiatives risk causing even greater harm to natural areas and the people who rely on them. According to a devastating research published last year, tree-planting efforts in India failed to result in a larger forest canopy on average.
Instead, it shifted the forest’s composition away from tree species that were traditionally relied upon by locals.
Experts also warn that popular tree-planting campaigns may divert attention away from actions that are more urgently needed to safeguard the environment, such as reducing pollution in the first place.
In recent years, Amazon’s own environmental footprint has grown in tandem with its operations. According to its most recent sustainability report, its greenhouse gas emissions were over 20% more in 2020 than they were in 2019.
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