Three climate scientists have started an initiative to plant more than 100 billion new trees to mitigate the environmental impact of President Donald Trump pulling the U.S. out of the Paris agreement on climate change, the BBC reports.
Current pledges to plant trees number about 140,000 from a little over 500 people, 0.0000014 percent of the #TrumpForest project’s ambitious goal, according to project’s website.
Project creators Dan Price of Britain, Jeff Willis of the U.S., and Adrien Taylor of New Zealand are encouraging twitter users to tag actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio in tweets to draw his attention to the project.
“We’ve met some of the people on the front lines of climate change in Bangladesh, Mongolia and in other countries, and we found it extremely upsetting that Mr. Trump’s ignorance is so profound,” Taylor told the BBC. “So we started to do something about it. Only a small percentage of the world voted him in, but we all have to deal with the consequences of his climate ignorance.”
The project began in March 2017 with the goal of planting enough trees that “the backward steps of the Trump Administration will be negated until a sane, logical government, that bases its decisions on scientific advice wins the next election,” the website says.
Trump pulled out of the Paris climate accord in June saying the withdrawal is “in America’s economic interest and won’t matter much to the climate.” (RELATED: TRUMP: Paris Accord Is A Plan To ‘Redistribute Wealth Out Of The US’)
“This agreement is less about the climate and more about other countries gaining a financial advantage over the United States,” Trump told reporters.
A recent study found the chance of preventing temperatures from warming more than 2 degrees Celsius is just 5 percent under Paris climate regulations.
“Current [Paris Climate Accord] pledges need to be ratcheted up significantly to curb emissions quickly enough to remain below 2°C,” the Trump Forest website states.
After fielding criticism for naming the forest after Trump and feeding the president’s narcissism, the three climate scientists defended the name saying they want him to “love the forest,” according to the BBC.
“If he wants to take ownership of this forest just like Trump vodka and Trump Tower, we would welcome that; the phone line is open,” Price told the BBC.
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