At fifty-one, Hal Hinkle was winding down a successful career on Wall Street and he was trying to figure out how to spend his retirement. He owned some property in Oregon, and launching an initiative to reforest the area seemed like a great way to reduce America’s carbon footprint.
He recruited volunteers and sponsors for his “million-tree” campaign. He visited elementary schools, forged connections with nonprofits, and sought out donors. “People thought this was cool,” he remembers. But then when he consulted with a scientist at the Sierra Club, “The scientist basically told me it was the dumbest idea he’d ever heard.” The problem with trees, he soon learned, is that they grow too slowly to stop the planet’s accelerating march toward “tipping points.”
Since his aborted attempt at planting millions of trees, Hinkle has launched a nonprofit dedicated to…
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