Our Green Heart

A message from Earth Protector Rob de Laet:

Dear Friends, 

The Amazon forest is one of nine systemic tipping points in the global climate system. As you know the great forest is near runaway die-back. Once that process is underway, it cannot be stopped, destroying the heart and lungs of our living planet. Losing the Amazon is losing the world to climate catastrophe and food crises. Not only can and must this be avoided, a clear alternative for a sustainable economy with the forest standing already exists and can further be developed. This is the only tipping point we can actively and directly reverse. It will need the efforts of the whole world to do so, but what great hope would be released if we would come together as humanity to turn this around!

Here we can create an enormous area where humans live in deep partnership with nature, based on the amazing wealth of its biodiversity, as the indigenous people have shown us and help draw down huge amounts of carbon by regenerating the forest and growing it back to its original size. So this is what needs to be done and can be done! 

Inspired by Anita Sanchez, Haru Kuntanawa, Joanna Macy, Charles Eisenstein and professor Carlos Nobre we produced a short video to make this clear. Right now it is available in Portuguese, English, Spanish and French and more languages are underway.

Next steps will be: 

• To call the youth of the world to reforest the area, football field by football field, to reverse the damage. It is clear that the enormous changes need to come from the youth and they need to push adults and governments to step in or step aside. Inger-Mette has designed a great plan to engage football clubs around the world to reforest football fields. A second video will be done for this event combined with crowdfunding to acquire degraded land in the area. 
• To call a Gathering for the Great Amazon Forest of all stakeholders to finalize a plan to for a turn around in the Amazon area, guided by the indigenous people, local entrepreneurs, scientists and many others. The plan will be inclusive and designed for and by the inhabitants of the forest to flourish in a sustainable economy, increasing their wealth and well being substantially. (p.s. funding is needed for this event). 
• To call upon the world’s financial powerhouses (governments, wealthy people, companies) to regrow the forest with the local people and start drawing down gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere. This will become everybody’s gift to the future of our children and all life on our beautiful living planet and it will bring people together. Restoring the world’s great tropical forests is one of our best bets to cool the planet and the healing of humanity’s home and soul. 

In gratitude for all you are doing, 
Rob de Laet