181

India, the country with the longest continuous history of

tree worship, was an appropriate place to begin. We first paid a

visit to a monument in the village of Khejarli that memorializes

the world’s original “tree huggers.” The Bishnois of western

Rajasthan are a religious sect whose beliefs strictly prohibit the

harming of trees and animals. In 1730, Amrita Devi and many

of her fellow villagers gave their lives attempting to save their

sacred khejri trees from being cut down by the maharajah’s men.

The Bishnois wrapped themselves around their beloved trees,

but to no avail; the loggers ruthlessly chopped off their heads

and continued felling the khejris. Not until 363 people died did

the maharajah finally put a stop to the senseless slaughter.

Currently there are more than 7.5 billion people living on our

planet. Despite the differences of culture, language, religion,

Relief plaque, Bishnoi Memorial Temple, Khejarli, Rajasthan, India

politics, and geography, we all share a commonality in our

daily lives—we all breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon

dioxide. And trees are one of our primary partners in

this vital function—conversely absorbing carbon dioxide

and releasing oxygen back into the atmosphere. That

life-sustaining process ends when a tree dies, and this is

happening worldwide at an alarming rate: More than forty

million trees are cut down every day. In this era of human-

caused climate change, it would be a grave mistake to take

trees for granted, as they have had 370 million years of

experience in sequestering carbon.

While we did not set out to make an environmental

statement with these photographs, it is hard for us to

ignore the fact that since 2014, when we began researching,

photographing, and writing for this project, the surface

temperatures on Earth have, for three consecutive years,

surpassed record highs. In 2016, an even more troubling

milestone was noted: Levels of carbon dioxide in the

atmosphere were found to be over four hundred parts per

million—an amount not evidenced on Earth for millions of

years. Scientists tell us that if these levels continue to rise

at such a pace, we can expect more weather extremes, crop

failures, ever-rising sea levels, and extinctions.

Trees can live without us, but we cannot live without

them. They are essential to the survival of our species—and

have been for millennia. It is our hope that by paying tribute

to their beauty, significant stories, and all the wisdom they

have to impart, we can appreciate not only their role in our

past, but also how crucial they are to our future.

Diane Cook & Len Jenshel

February 2017

New York City