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Comment by isostatic | Hacker News Reader

Ethipoia, and Africa as a whole, is not Band Aid. Addis Ababa gets more rainfall each year than Washington state.

What Band Aid? I'm talking of the mechanics of keeping 350 million trees alive. That takes effort, and a lot more area besides Addis Ababa.

I'm inclined to disbelieve these numbers unless I see some trustworthy non-govt source. Everyone's quoting the minister.

Band Aid in this case refers to a charity fundraising effort started in the 1980s to combat famine in Ethiopia. It included some misleading lyrics in its headliner song:

> Lyrics of the song included description of the country saying, "where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow..."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band_Aid_(band)

It was a response to an immense drought in Ethiopia (largely the result of deforestation). They had years with almost no rain. It really wasn't misleading with respect to the situation at the time.

They all don't need to stay alive. They just need some of them to take hold and grow and then spread seeds so that new trees grow, like a normal forest.

The idea is to plant 350 million knowing that a lot won't survive, but that in planting a huge amount, many millions will survive and nature can take over.

What part of Washington state? Western, that’s a lot of rain, Eastern, that could be little rain at all.

Wikipedia puts Seatle at 37.49", Washington State as a whole at 42.2", and Addis Ababa at 45.9". The precipitation figures (for Washington/Seatle) includes snowfall - I think it's about 10:1 snow:rain

Washington state is like Texas: there is a huge variation on climate. The same is true in Ethiopia, whether you are in the high planes (erm plateau) or towards sea level.

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