Did you know that BILLIONS of trees have died in recent years?

Beetle attacks and an Asian fungus are taking out North America's ancient alpine bristlecones.

A prolonged drought in Texas has killed five million urban shade trees and an additional half-billion in forests and parks.

And two severe droughts are behind the deaths of billions more trees in the Amazon.

“When is the best time to plant a tree?” The answer: “Twenty years ago. The second-best time? Today.”

Any reader of this site knows that trees planted in the right places help fight climate change.

But in this New York Times article, Jim Robbins, the author of an upcoming book called "The Man Who Planted Trees", shares a number of other ways that these stalwarts of nature make our planet liveable.