What good does it do to plant one tree?

MCC writer explores her skepticism about how to mitigate climate change

What good does it do to plant one tree, I asked myself, as I visited with farmers in Mwenezi District, in south central Zimbabwe last September.

Everywhere our Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Communications team went, farmers were sure to tell us they planted a tree that year, most commonly a mango tree because it provides food as well as shade.

These farmers had come to understand that cutting down trees over the decades may have addressed a need for firewood, but destroying forests contributes to climate change.

Rosemary Katambo with a peach tree from her tree nursery. Score Against Poverty strengthened her knowledge of tree planting and climate change. She now educates others. (MCC photo/Meghan Mast)

And they know that climate change is hurting their land, the crops they eat and their water supply. It even divides families by forcing them to migrate.

At an MCC-supported emergency food distribution, I spoke with Clemence Jawanda, a father of eight. He said that inconsistent rains during the last two planting seasons resulted in very poor harvests. The food he and his wife grew was gone six months before they could harvest again.

On the floor, a few chickens were brooding, on their way to producing other chickens Jawanda and his family can sell or eat. The family adds termites, caterpillars, mushrooms and other naturally growing ingredients to their cooking, but that’s not enough.

If the upcoming planting season isn’t better, Jawanda said he may need to migrate to look for work, like other men in the community have done.

Women who are left behind are quite vulnerable, explained Caroline Pugeni, project coordinator for Score Against Poverty (SCORE), the grassroots organization and MCC partner that organized the food distribution. In the culture, women have little to no decision-making power, yet they need to feed, educate and parent their children alone.

Planting season for 2022-23 was supposed to start in October, so in early January, I sent an email to Pugeni to ask how crops were growing.

“Any delay in rains in the next few days will result in complete crop failure,” she wrote back. In March, she confirmed that 85 percent of crops in three districts of Mwenezi had failed because of too much rainfall variation.

My heart sank. What have we done? We, meaning those of us in the world who have ignored the warnings of our climate scientists for at least the last 20 years, probably longer.

Although my husband and I have made some significant changes in our house and property over the years to be kinder to the environment, climate change still seemed like a distant problem. I figured my passionate environmental friends could deal with it.

But now, when I think about the Zimbabwe farmers planting one tree in an effort to protect and feed their families, I am ashamed of my nonchalance. As a Christian, I have committed to love God and my neighbors. Yet, my very lifestyle isn’t loving to them.

Clemence Jawanda, Nyaradzo Jawanda and Nyadzisai Jawanda unload food that came from a monthly food distribution from MCC partner, Score Against Poverty. (MCC photo/Meghan Mast)

Unlike me, they don’t have the luxury of choosing whether or not to address climate change. They must act now.

Farmers are changing the traditional way they have farmed to conservation agriculture—a farming method that is more productive in areas with little rain. SCORE has been teaching this method and encouraging families to use less wood by introducing fuel-efficient stoves, solar power and biodigesters.

The lifestyle of these families in rural Zimbabwe did not cause climate change, even if they cut down trees and their country has a coal industry. In the big picture, their contribution to climate change is a drop in the bucket compared to what North Americans and other prosperous countries have done.

Guvuriro singled out gasses from industries, vehicles and nitrogen fertilizer as some of top culprits of ozone layer destruction. But she didn’t stop with blame.

“So what are we supposed to do as the Women Coalition on Climate Change?” she asked the group. She answered her own question: Don’t cut down trees. Plant trees. Why? Because trees take in the carbon we produce. Trees again.

As I listened and thought about what I had learned during the week, I realized that my skepticism gradually had evolved into admiration.

So when I was asked to say a few words to the WCCC participants, I heard myself telling them that I was so inspired by their efforts to address climate change that the next car I buy would not use gasoline.

They clapped enthusiastically, but my gut churned with the economic disparities and injustice I had just named. I was promising people who walked to the meeting that I would buy a car that cost tens of thousands of dollars, so that I don’t pollute the atmosphere I share with them.

I was embarrassed by unintentionally revealing that I can spend that much in front of people who are trying to figure out how to make food grow out of dry ground. On the other hand, I think the promise I made is appropriate.

I earn more. I cause more harm to the environment than they do. So, I owe more to fix it. Perhaps this car is my tree? Or maybe there will be a better option than an electric car, which I’ve learned recently also has justice and environmental problems related to mining of critical minerals.

I look around and see other people in U.S. who are planting their “tree.” I have friends whose farmhouse was previously heated with fuel oil, but now they are using a more efficient heating and air conditioning system powered by electric, which is completely offset by their solar panels. Their once-rented hayfield now has hundreds of native trees growing on it.

My church has installed chargers for electric cars. We’re encouraged to charge ourselves a gas tax and use it to address climate change.

I asked my cousin, who is an expert on environmental sustainability, what she thought about the one tree initiative in Zimbabwe. She said their efforts are absolutely essential.

Everybody must do something, she said. Some people advocate with the government, some teach, some quietly set an example, some lead businesses that voluntarily reduce their carbon output and others work for environmental organizations. Some plant trees.

It doesn’t help, she says, to get lost in blame and hopelessness. Keep changing. Do one thing. Then another.

For me, it’s my next car ... and a lot of steps in between. What’s your next tree?

– Linda Espenshade

Linda Espenshade is MCC news coordinator in the U.S. MCC launched a climate change advocacy campaign on April 22, “Climate Action for Peace,” to draw attention to the vast impact of climate change on people around the world and to give people ways to work on mitigating it. Find out more at climateactionforpeace.com.