There’s a huge amount of planning involved in restoring the planet’s natural state. In fact, it’s something that can’t be planned per se, but in the next generation or two we are going to need to repair the decline of the rainforest stocks if we are to be able to sustain the size of the human race and our fellow species on Earth.

You’ll often see the documentaries on the television refer to the efforts to plant new vegetation and forests, but the fact of the matter is that we need to do much more. We’re destroying areas much faster than we’re currently replacing them, so we need to think carefully before we pass the point of no return.

There are two significant considerations to keep in mind as we plan for the future. The first is the sheer time it takes for trees to grow to a point that they become functional in the sense of supporting the planet in the same way as the ones that were removed. The second is that they may not be in exactly the same location. This latter concept means that a different quantity may be required in order to achieve a like for like replacement. That potentially could mean that we can achieve an equivalent result with a physically smaller area or lower total number of trees being planted. There’s a lot of research going on right now into this opportunity as it could provide significant shortcuts in what may actually save the planet!

Referring back for a moment to the documentaries, you’ll often see the end goal is to allow the replenishment of natural resources at a faster pace that we’re consuming them, at least until the former stock is achieved. Of course, that in itself will generate pollution, so we may need to aim higher for a bigger prize than the current TV shows offer.There’s a certain irony in that the only answer is inevitably going to rely heavily on helping nature repair itself, while at the same time we continue to damage our natural reserves ever faster.

Whatever ends up being the chosen solution, we might sound like a broken record but we need to do something fast, and that really does mean acting now.