I recently read the book "The Man Who Planted Trees: A Story of Lost Groves, the Science of Trees, and A Plan to Save the Planet," by Jim Robbins. The true story follows the life of David Milarch, a man who had a near-death experience but lived to tell the tale of his trip to the afterlife where angels assigned him a mission: to clone and plant some of the oldest, sturdiest trees on the planet.

Robbins is a writer for The New York Times, and his involvement with Milarch's work was greatly beneficial. His book on the subject, especially, advocates for Milarch's efforts and the non-profit organization he founded, the Archangel Tree Archive. The group strives to propagate old trees, reforest the planet, and archive the DNA of old-growth trees. When Milarch began, there was a lot of speculation because of the lack of knowledge about trees' genetics. However, as the work has progressed, Milarch and his supporters have proven the process to be not only possible but very successful.

So, of course, reading this account of such a unique line of work was interesting for me. But, I did not expect to pick up a book about trees and put it down pondering my spirituality and the interconnectedness of nature. Robbins opened my eyes to the amazing qualities of trees — not only do some trees have the ability to survive for thousands of years, but some have traits I never would have expected. For example, yew trees can grow low branches to the ground and root in a process called branch layering. This can turn a single tree into an entire forest! Multiple studies have proven that trees communicate with each other using intricate signals and electrical tension voltages.

And the piece that I found most interesting: there is a relationship between trees and space. Planets in the solar system can affect trees here on Earth. And not just the sun, but even planets outside of our solar system! Trees are incredible. They're living creatures with lives just as important as our own. So with the need for a solution to global climate change becoming increasingly vital, we must turn to plant trees like a real and effective plan of action. A single tree may store up to five thousand pounds of carbon in its lifetime. Willow trees can treat and clean contaminated water more efficiently than any man-made solution. And the world's population will be happier and healthier when trees are placed back into urban environments.

Milarch's call to the trees was otherworldly. But for the rest of us, the call comes from our very own Mother Earth. We have very little time to do what must be done in order to survive. We have yet to find an end-all-be-all solution to the anthropomorphic damage that has been done. Nonetheless, there are so many things that we are capable of doing to begin to reverse the harm done. The most important: carefully thought out reforestation. If we plant the right trees in the right places, the ecosystem can work together with the way it's supposed to so that we can effectively fight climate change, so it is vital that we turn to green infrastructure. "Instead of trees in the cities, we should be thinking about cities in the trees" (Robbins).

For more inspiration, watch Milarch's TED Talk and follow Archangel on Twitter.