 Plant
a tree on
Noruz
Help the environment and learn to cooperate
By John Mohammadi
December 9, 2003
The Iranian
I know, I know, it's far far to early to be talking about
Noruz, but this can't wait. I have been thinking about a project
for a while that all Iranians can participate in. In a word: Trees.
From
now on, in addition to raising sabzi for Noruz
and then wastefully throwing them out on Sizdah-be-Dar
picnics, let's all start a new New Year's tradition of
planting trees in Iran every year.
Think of it: Iran's
population is around 65 million people. Now, assume
that only 10% of the population actually bothers to
plant a tree. And further assume that just 10% of the
planted trees start to grow roots and live. And then,
just to be pessimisstic, assume that just 10% of those
trees survive various natural and man-made disasters
and manage to establish themselves as part of a
healthy ecosystem.
After all that, we would still be
left with at least 65,000 trees every year! That's one
heck of a lot of trees! Not a new Amazon forest, of
course, but a very very good start, especially
considering the magnifying effect that will cascade
through the environment from each tree: new birds taht
will make nests in the trees, new insects taht will
live on the branches, new plants that will take root
under the shade and protection of the trees and in the
new dirt created by the falling leaves, etc. Each tree
will also reduct pollution, stop the growth of desert
wasteland, cool down everything in the hot summers
too.
How can this be accomplished? Very easily.
Iranian
culture already recognizes the value of planting
things - Persian gardens are world-famous. School
children even memorize the old poem about the king who
encountered an old man planting a walnut tree. The
king asks the old man why he's bothering to plant a
walnut tree if he won't live to see it give fruit. The
old man tells the king, "Others planted so that I
could eat, so I will plant for others can eat."
Financially-speaking, it won't be expensive if the
media is used to creat a demand for saplings by
raising consciousness, especially if some mystical
religious significance or good luck is associated with
the planting and raising of trees (which should be
easy enough to do). Then, once demand has been primed,
the same peddlers who sell New Year gold fish could
sell the saplings for a small profit.
Iranians living
abroad can be encouraged to participate by
contributing funds and having trees planted on their
behalf. Television and radio shows can be dedicated to
teach people how to plant and raise saplings, creating
a sense of pride, competitiveness and accomplishment
in doing so.
This project can make Iranians more informed and
concerned about the environment. More importantly,
this is a project that all Iranians can participate in
so it is empowering: it will teach Iranians that they
must take individual responsibility and cooperate
together to overcome problems instead of simply
complaining about how bad things are while waiting for
some mystical self-appointed "savior" to take
over the government from abroad and fix everthing.
Then, once the idea is firmly established that to fix
things, each person needs to do his or her own part,
the same mentality can be directed towards other
problems, such as the traffic situation.
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Plant
a tree on
Noruz
