The final Friday of the month means it’s time for We Are the World Blogfest, the day for promoting positive news. It delights me to participate as an agent of pronoia highlighting feel-good news stories for us all to celebrate.
Cohosting the project this month are: Shilpa Garg, Dan Antion, Simon Falk, Michelle Wallace, Mary Giese. Do check out their posts, along with everyone else participating, and feel free to join us here.
Today, the last Friday in Apri, also happens to be National Arbor Day, and in honor of that observation I want to share a tree-related story. In truth, it’s not an actual hot-off-the-press news story, but I’m betting few people know about it, and it’s worth celebrating, so I’m calling it a good-to-go share.
A small book publisher in Argentina is offering a book that can grow back into a tree after you’re done reading it. The project, called Tree Book Tree, uses acid-free paper impregnated with Jacaranda seeds, a species of flowering tree native to Central and South America. Read more about it and watch a short video here.
To be clear, this may seem frivolous and/or misguided, and for those who insist all reading should be done on devices, no physical book is a good thing. And it’s true, it will be far better when we’re all using non-tree sourced paper, such as post-consumer waste and sustainable crops like hemp, kenaf, and bamboo.
But we’re not at that point, and certainly not in Argentina where this book is published. There is a huge deforestation problem, and while the issues are multiple and complex, a driving force behind exponential forest and habitat loss, with impacts on freshwater resources and pesticide use is the planting of palm oil and soy crops in answer to global demands in the edible oil market.
So any project that helps educate kids about the value of trees, and helps them become invested in the planting of them is indeed a good thing and worthy of celebrating.
As an artist, I’ve worked with seeded papers a lot over the years. One of the things I like to do on the equinoxes and solstices is create weathergrams that I hand outside so the elements can disintegrate them over time. It feels appropriate to me to mark the turning of the cyclical seasonal wheel with something that itself will ebb and dissolve. I often make my own paper embedded with seeds. Here’s an example of one where I embedded dried leaves from a previous autumn. I enjoy knowing it eventually returned to composting.
Traditionally a weathergram contains a haiku, and on the back of this tag I used a translation of one of Basho’s:
“all along this road not a single soul – only autumn evening.”
It would be great if we could figure out how to walk this Earth without being the destructive burdens we are. I have faith in the wisdom and innovation of our youth, and hopefully they’ll find solutions we haven’t envisioned. And perhaps it all begins by reading a book that can be planted.
A ‘novel’ idea to impregnate a book with seeds…
Thanks for sharing that,
Beth
https://bethlapinsatozblog.wordpress.com/
LOL – “novel” indeed!
Hi Deborah … what a great idea – as long as any books similarly produced only use seeds from native trees … fun and clever – and as Beth says ‘novel’!! Cheers Hilary
#WAWTB will be up Sunday or Monday … after Z!
Yes, care needs to be taken to insure only native species are used. But I think the idea itself is wonderful, and hopefully inspiring and educational.
I’ll be looking forward to your WATWB post Hilary. Z draws near!
Hari OM
I agree that there is need to be realistic about the timescales and availability of non-paper reading sources, so this seeded paper is rather genius! YAM xx
It is isn’t it?!
Hi, Deborah – I love positive, creative ideas like this that are the step in the right direction. I too have faith in the wisdom of our youth. If all living generations work together, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.
I share your belief Donna that if we all worked together, cross-generationally, the differences we could make would be astounding. We all have important ideas and skills to contribute, and can teach and learn from each other endlessly.
The tree book tree idea is totally genius!
Is the production of non-biodegradable plastic devices really more eco-friendly than paper books made responsibly and sustainably? Comparing each to each, both production and disposal, what is the ecological footprint of a paper book and an e-reader?
I am a fan of paper books obviously! 🙂 Just in case you didn’t guess that already! 😀
I absolutely agree – the cost in both manufacturing and disposal of plastics should ideally make this a non-option in eco-considerations. I definitely lean in the direction of non-tree sourced paper crops though, and get excited when these kind of options are explored.
Thank you for participating in the #WATWB this month!
I am a great fan of paperbacks but I DO realise that sustainable living practises are the way to go in our quest for eco-friendly living!
Tree Book Tree sounds like a great initiative!
#WATWB April Co-host
Thanks for co-hosting #WATWB Michelle – it’s exciting to celebrate its passage into year two.
I love that term “eco-friendly” – if we could only hold that standard for everything we did, how exponentially different everything would be.
Great post Deborah thank you! I was given a pretty little pack of notepaper some years back which were impregnated with seeds, 12 little notes for each month with instructions of when and how to plant them. Which I used to add to a gift –
I had to take some cookies to a meeting this p.m. Do you know how long it took to find something that didn’t have palm oil in it? A verrrry long time. All efforts to reduce our finger/foot print is necessary in my book…
The notepapers sounds lovely.
The palm oil issue is an enormous problem and I don’t think the magnitude is even remotely understood. We certainly have much to do in so many areas.
What a lovely way to help the environment, Deborah, to plant a tree book tree. Thanks for sharing this, for introducing me to such a positive, resourceful project.
I love #WATWB and the opportunity it gives us to find and celebrate so many interesting and positive things! Thanks for stopping by Lizbeth – and have a wonderful month.
I love this tree book tree initiative. What a fab way to teach kids about the value of nature and trees and save our environment too. Thanks for sharing such an inspiring and interesting story, Deborah 🙂
I know Shilpa – it’s one of those fun win-win kinds of things that are so delightful, no?