The Treesolution

Learn how to create wealth from CO₂

Pieter Hoff

Images:

Front cover: ‘Metamorfosis’

Work by Edmundo Fierro - Ecuador

©Collection ‘Olor de Azahares’

Rear cover: ‘the trunk of Mother Earth’

Work by Edmundo Fierro – Ecuador

©Collection ‘COmON Fundation’

In chapter ‘The cynics are wrong’

‘El daño de la capa de ozono’

Work by Gonzalo Baraja - Ecuador

©Collection ‘Olor de Azahares’

ISBN 978-90-8203060-0

5th Edition

Translation: Marjorie Mercedes Terranova Aranda

Design: Margot Verhaeren

© Text and photos Pieter Hoff. All rights reserved. Nothing from this publication may be reproduced and/or be published by means of printing, photocopy, microfilm, in a digital way or in any way whatsoever, without written permission from the author.

I dedicate this book to the memory of Prof. Dr. Wangari Maathai. In 2004 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and she dedicated her life to make the earth habitable by planting trees. Her unrelenting labor inspired me to write this book. Those who wish to know more about her dedication and work can visit www.greenbeltmovement.org Unfortunately Ms. Maathai left us on September 25, 2011, too early to see the full fruition of her work.

The publication of this book is funded by my brother Matthie Hoff. I thank him for his support and sharing the dream of reforestation of the world.

I thank my son, Wout Hoff; my neighbor, André Nieuwlaat; and my good friend and a walking tree encyclopedia living in Oman -who is helping me planting trees in the Oman deserts- Clive Winbow for the improvements they suggested on the contents of the book and for their linguistic advice.

I thank Ms. Marjorie Terranova from Ecuador who fact checked, made the Spanish translation, and reviewed the English language of this version; for her ongoing work to improve The Treesolution to its present status. Without her help I could never have completed this book.

Finally I thank Mrs. Margot Verhaeren for the fantastic design of this book. Without her it would not have looked so beautiful.

Table of contents

Introduction

The fifth edition

Inspiration

The fascinating CO2 problem

The CO2 concept

Production losses and CO2 emissions

CO2 prejudices

The debate on climate change

Conceptual perception

CO2 viewed from a different angle

Comparing air to water

The Kyoto Protocol

Reduction is delay

Delay is not wrong, but it is no solution either

The ‘relocation’ of CO2 emission

CO2 is no pollution

Mankind emits 6% of all CO2

The split position of the United Nations

Choosing between useless and useful investments

Clean energy

Wealth through a head start

Why the USA refuse to ratify the Kyoto Protocol

What needs to be improved in the Kyoto Protocol

The peculiarities of the Annex-1 countries list of the Kyoto Protocol

The ‘forgotten’ population growth

Six failed Climate Conferences

The Circle

Scientific research proves that the earth has a flexible CO2 disconnecting capacity

Scientific support

The enormous purification power of the tree

The disconnection of C atoms from O atoms by trees, plants and algae

The Treesolution

Have we got 2 billion hectares of land available?

How large is 50 million hectares?

Trees grow everywhere

Why solve the problem in 40 years and not tomorrow?

The organization of the Treesolution

‘From CO2 Nature’

Figures of the Treesolution

The ‘CO2 emission surcharge’ level

The influence of the Treesolution

Criticism of the Treesolution

Those who calculate, plant trees

The cynics are wrong

Let’s not create new slavery

Our problem is their opportunity

Support the Treesolution plan

Land reform

The food challenge

Benefits of the Treesolution

Final words to the reader

Summary

Original work

Sources

Introduction

In 2009 the G8 Summit was held in L’Aquila, Italy. One of the subjects on the agenda was climate change. During the Summit the eight participating countries decided to accept a 2°C increase in temperature of the atmosphere until 2050, because in their opinion the world is not capable of sufficiently limiting the emission of CO₂ to avoid this.

The December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference failed to come up with solutions. The 2010 Cancun Conference also did not bring any solution to prevent climate change. The 2011 Durban Conference was again paralyzed, unable to come up with any solution to the problem. The Rio+20 Summit gave hope to so many; but again, the result was a paper full of empty promises. The 2012 Doha Conference and 2013 Warsaw Conference were the most recent chances to get to a new Climate Protocol. The negotiators failed again.

After reading this book you will understand why this happens. The basic principles of the Kyoto Protocol - mankind’s intended instrument to reduce CO₂ emission - are so full of flaws that no solution based on them will ever work, unless these flaws are acknowledged and removed. Unfortunately I have not seen any willingness or commitment to do so until now.

CO₂ experts, who believe in climate change and who plead for measures to prevent it from happening, seem just as stubborn as their opponents who deny climate change. Although I have been writing about these flaws since 2008, it seems CO₂ experts prefer to ignore them instead of removing the flaws from a new treaty, so that all parties involved are able to sign it.

After having read this book, you will understand why all negotiations about a new climate treaty have failed. In this book, I offer a completely different view on the CO₂ emission problem; and - as you can expect from an inventor - a solution to solve it.

Holland, January 2014

Pieter Hoff

The fifth edition

The year 2014 has arrived, and no significant progress has been made towards cleaning the air of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases. Since 2011 we have discovered that in recent years, both climate change ‘believers’ and climate change ‘skeptics’ have been providing us with incorrect figures. We even have a ‘climate-gate’ scandal which shows how unreliable ‘climate facts’ have become. Many take positions, not with the aim to reduce the CO₂ emission, but simply to make money from the problem. Multinational companies are busy developing incredibly expensive, polluting, and inefficient 'Carbon Capture and Storage' technologies; and they are trying to influence governments to spend money on these technologies. Banks have huge interests in carbon trading, and that is why they support the present policies. Governments need more money, so they use ‘climate change’ as an easy way to levy more taxes on the public and corporations. Each of these parties is trying to influence the debate, and they are able to do so because most people lack any basic knowledge of what we are talking about.

This book has been updated with the developments that have taken place between August 2008 - the publication of the first edition - and December 2013. I hope it will help you to better judge 'solutions’ proposed by parties who have a financial interest, and who want to make you pay for solutions that are often both unnecessary and ineffective.

I am confident that after reading this book, you will start to support the only solution that makes sense, that makes money (instead of costing money) and that is given to us by Mother Nature itself: the Treesolution.

Inspiration

In the years that I ran a business in lily hybridization, I traveled to more than 50 countries to sell my lily bulbs. On my business trips I encountered a problem that occurs everywhere: groundwater levels are dropping at an alarming rate. The groundwater took hundreds of millennia to build up; however, if we continue using groundwater for irrigation purposes on the scale of today, we will have depleted our groundwater supply in a matter of centuries (and in some locations, decades). Although the world is frantically worried about energy, CO₂, and climate change; the drop in groundwater levels due to large-scale extraction for drinking water and irrigation might be even more serious. Yet hardly anyone seems to be paying any attention to it; simply because the problem is literally invisible, below the surface of the earth.

As a lily specialist, I saw my customers worldwide using groundwater. When I found out what the consequences are for groundwater levels, I started to worry. I also witnessed large scale deforestation. For years I drove several times between Rome and Naples, and on these trips I passed Caserta - home of the enchanting Palazzo Reale di Caserta. In the 18th century this was the world’s largest building; combined with some of the most beautiful gardens in the world, it is a pleasure to visit this place.

Near Caserta are the Apennines. Once these mountains were covered by a lush, green blanket of pines; but now they are dry, eroded and bare. Whenever I saw them, I thought: ‘what a shame this is. How will we ever be able to restore this?’ As you may know, irrigation does not work on slopes because it relies on nearly pressure-less systems. Because of this fact, on one of my journeys I had an inspiration: to make water out of air. I sold my lily company in 2003 and concentrated on working out the details of this idea.

In the years that followed I have developed a practical and affordable solution for planting. I have named this technology that allows people to plant trees, shrubs or vegetables in their gardens or on wasteland, the Groasis Technology. In 2010 the Groasis Waterboxx, which is an integral part of the technology, was voted by Popular Science, America’s oldest and biggest science magazine with 3 million readers, winner of the Green Award in its ‘Best of what’s new 2010’ competition. The competition consists of 11 classes and the Groasis Waterboxx also received the honor of being chosen as overall 'Best of what’s new 2010', beating 116 other fantastic Fortune 500 products: like the Apple iPad, the Philips led lamp, the Green Porsche etc. I was overwhelmed by this honor and it stimulated me even more to come up with a practical solution to many of the challenges that we are facing. After reading my book you will have learned more about the CO₂ problem, and you will understand how the Treesolution can help solve them.

I hope you enjoy reading this book.

Groasis Waterboxx