Old-growth Forests and Global Warming Quiz

Reversing Global Warming through Ancient Trees

• Old-growth forests play a crucial role in maintaining a clean atmosphere, but 98% of these forests have been destroyed due to logging, development, pollution, and disease, contributing to global warming.
• David Milarch and Leslie Lee, co-founders of Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, are cloning trees from over 60 of the world's oldest and largest species to combat global warming.
• These cloned trees include California's redwoods and sequoias, Ireland's ancient oaks, and Lebanon's historic cedars, some of which are over 2,000 to 3,000 years old.
• The goal is to have people buy and plant these cloned trees, which can produce oxygen, absorb carbon, and even be used in the manufacture of medications.
• Milarch aims to clone over 200 different species and restore some of the old-growth forests lost to human activity.

Protecting Wildlife in Cambodia

• Cambodia's population growth and unregulated development have led to environmental destruction, causing a conflict between humans and wild Asian elephants.
• Elephants searching for food have destroyed farms, leading poor and uneducated farmers to kill them to protect their livelihoods.
• By the early 2000s, the elephant population had fallen dramatically from 2,000 to 500.
• Tuy Sereivathana (Vathana) worked to conserve Cambodia's natural resources, focusing on understanding the problems faced by farmers and helping them develop practical solutions to protect their farms.
• Vathana's methods included building electric fences, using hot chili peppers and native plants to deter elephants, and organizing farmers to guard their farms at night.
• He also established community schools to increase literacy and provide wildlife conservation education, redeveloping cultural pride in Cambodia's elephants.
• As a result, there has not been a single killing of a wild Asian elephant since 2005, and the farmers have become the elephants' greatest protectors.