Wangari Maathai, Ellen Wilson, media in Kenya (credit: Jeff Haskins)

The Dr. Maathai-inspired Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign planted 4 billion trees as of yesterday. It started in 2007.

At a conference in Nairobi that focused on how more trees on farms could help reverse climate change, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai had a story to tell.

It was about a fire that broke out in a huge forest.

“All of the animals are coming out of the forest very disheartened,” she said. “They were saying, ‘Let me leave, as there is nothing we can do.’ They came to the edge of the forest—all except the hummingbird.

“The hummingbird said, ‘I’m not going anywhere. I want to do something about this fire.’ The hummingbird went to a spring and brought back a drop of water and put it on the fire. The bird kept going back and forth putting a drop of water on the fire. All of the other animals stayed on the edge of the forest—even those with larger beaks which could bring more water. They said, ‘What are you doing? You are too little. Come and join us.’ The hummingbird kept going.”

Maathai said that when it comes to growing trees on farms and reforesting in Kenya, every citizen has a role to play. For example, she said, farmers should “not wait for the government” to dig trenches to allow water to sink into the ground rather than run off and strip away the top soil. They should harvest rain water on their land, she said. People should plant trees from large canopied trees to small shrubs.

“Every one of us can be a hummingbird,” she said.

Poznan Town Square (credit: Megan Dold)

As the sun began to set around 3 p.m. in Poznan, Poland, where I was attending the 2008 UNFCCC Climate Change Conference, I couldn’t help but wonder why this city was picked to host the huge event. I knew from an earlier Wikipedia search that it was the fifth largest city in Poland and one of the oldest; photographs showed off a beautiful old town square. But I had seen none of that while walking back and forth between my hotel and the enormous conference center. My experience was a place of gray skies and streets lined by gray, boxy buildings.

The conference organizers had prepared for the bleak weather, cheerfully handing out blue hats, scarves, and gloves, as well as jars of local honey, to the 9,000 attendees. Throngs of foreigners stood out around Poznan, all dressed alike with the same scarves and hats. Inside or out, they debated everything from emissions targets to deforestation terms to adaptation and mitigation schemes. All wanted their say, and as the conference continued, prospects for a global deal on emissions targets looked increasingly dismal.

That afternoon, while delegates were deep into their discussions, I decided to walk away from the conference center, in pursuit of the town square shown in the photographs. For a couple of blocks, the buildings looked the same, and I felt disoriented and lost.

But suddenly, at the end of a narrow street, I saw a dazzling light in the distance. As I approached closer, the street opened up and revealed Poznan’s old town square—a magnificent, light-infused place, surrounded by Baroque and Renaissance style buildings. People were everywhere. Christmas music poured out of hidden speakers. Shoppers gathered around outdoor booths around the square, buying everything from toys, souvenirs and candy, to mulled wine and giant loaves of freshly baked bread. The aroma of cooked meat filled the air.

And then I discovered the source of the magnificent light: ice sculptures, placed prominently in the middle of the town square. They were rapidly melting in the afternoon sun. The sculptures had surely once been magnificent creations—reindeer, or a sleigh filled with gifts, perhaps. Now they were so badly disfigured it was impossible to tell their original shapes. They were just globs of ice, their once grandeur lost, now hulks ludicrously illuminated by colorful pink and purple spotlights.

At that moment, Poznan, for me, became the perfect venue for the conference. Across town, thousands of people were working to resolve the complicated issues surrounding global warming, while here, in the old town square, overlooked and out of sight, large blocks of ice melted away.