Webb - Guardians of the Trees

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to my child, who is such an unexpected blessing in my later years and is being born just as this book is

Throughout this book, with a few exceptions I use the traditional Indonesian method of addressing people: an honorific plus their first name. Most of the honorifics used are family terms, which are applied to the entire community as a traditional courtesy. For example, any man who has had children will be called Pak, which means father, and similarly, a woman will be called Ibu, meaning mother. A woman who does not have children is called Tante, which means Auntie, and this was how I was often referred to outside the clinic before I had a child. In the clinic and in official settings, I am called Dr. Kinari (or, affectionately, Dr. K). A young person is addressed using sibling terms that indicate their relative age: Mbak or Kak, older sister; Bang, older brother; and Adik, younger sibling. In Indonesia, in guessing someones age, you should guess on the older side, because it honors them moreeven though people may collapse in laughter if you get it wrong. Only if you are very, very close to someone can you use their name without any honorific at all. So I have not used an honorific for people I consider to be my close friend.

In quoting a conversation with an Indonesian, I have generally given only the English translation, even though (unless otherwise noted) those conversations were in Indonesian. (The translations are my own and are sometimes slightly loose so that the meaning is clear.) I have used peoples real names where appropriate, but I have changed the names of patients unless they gave me specific permission to share their stories. In some cases, I have changed the persons gender or other details to preserve their anonymity. In one case, I combined two meetings for clarity, but all other events are described as they occurred.

When you live in the forest, its easy to see that everythings connected.

DR. JANE GOODALL

Growing up in northern New Mexico, I shared a horse, Pinto, with one of our neighbors. One day, Pinto and I were cantering along the mesa top when he saw something. I dont know what it was, but he reared straight up and pivoted around. If you have ever heard the term runaway horseit is real. Pinto laid his ears back and full-out galloped straight for the edge of the mesa. I knew for certain that we would both die if we went over the edge. But Pinto was not responding to the reins, no matter what I tried. If I jumped off, neither of us would survive. Seconds from disaster, I remembered something I once readthat it is impossible for a horse to run with something hanging from its neck.

So I swung both feet over to the same stirrup, grabbed his mane with my right hand, and swung myself down under his neck at full gallop, gripping his mane on both sides. Pinto slid to a stop, just feet from the edge of the cliff, saving both our lives.

THAT DAY WITH PINTO TAUGHT ME an important lesson. Even when things look hopeless, it might still be possible to avoid disaster. This book is about my own work on what feels like the biggest cliff any of us could possibly face: the danger that our earth will no longer be livable for us. Global warming is happening faster than even the worst models predicted ten years ago. We are only beginning to understand just how dangerous the feedback loops can be, as reflective ice disappears, polar seas absorb sunlight and warm more quickly, and melting tundra releases methane into the atmosphere. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said that if we dont halve carbon emissions by 2030, we may go beyond irreversible tipping points, at which time it wont matter what we do. In other words, that cliff is very close.

When most people think about emissions, they usually think only about burning fossil fuels for cars, airplanes, and electricity. They dont realize that deforestation releases as much carbon as the entire transportation sector for the whole world. Despite covering only 2 percent of the surface of the earth, rainforests support 50 percent of the worlds species and hold 25 percent of the worlds carbon, stored in both the trees and the soil. In addition, as trees grow, they continue to suck down carbon from the atmosphere.

Trees, and especially tropical rainforest trees, are our absolute best friends in halting the climate crisis, since they absorb a third of the pollution we emit every year. They are the natural climate solution, exquisitely invented through millions of years of evolution. Rainforests are huge banks of carbon, and the bigger the tree, the more carbon it absorbs as it growsand the more oxygen it releases. Forests are for this reason sometimes referred to as the lungs of the earth. When forest is logged or burned, most of that carbon gets released into the atmosphere, and the local cooling effects of the trees are lost as well. We do have to transition our world to one powered by alternative energies, but we also have to protect the tropical rainforests of the world, because even if we stopped releasing more carbon, we would need the forests help to get the earths atmosphere back into a safer balance.

No humans, in all of human existence, have lived through a time like this. Can we stop this runaway horse before we tumble off the cliff? Can we find a way to live sustainably and in balance with our planet? Is it possible for that transformation to be unexpected and profound?

For more than a decade, I have had the privilege to lead a tiny band of people resisting the loss of biodiversity and the poisoning of our earth, serving as a doctor who heals both people and nature. I founded two organizations that support this work, from different sides of the earth: Health In Harmony in the United States, and Alam Sehat Lestari in Indonesia. The Indonesian name translates to healthy nature everlasting, and the short form, ASRI (pronounced AHHS-ree), means harmoniously balanced. I have had the incredible joy of partnering with my Indonesian colleagues as they transcended poor education, lack of opportunity, and a culture of fatalism, to create a multi-award-winning model that honors the local communities as the wisdom holders for how to reverse rainforest loss and improve human well-being.

I hope this story will inspire and motivate you to join in this movement across the planet to bring about change. By listening to rainforest communities and partnering around the world, we can have huge impacts on the health of the whole planet. By working together, we can thrive.

SUKADANA, WEST KALIMANTAN, INDONESIA: JULY 2011