Giving Compass' Take:

• EcoSikh, founded in 2009, is a project to connect Sikh values with environmental issues, and it's the latest program is called the "Million Tree Project" in which Sikhs around the world are planting trees to address climate change concerns. 

• How are other religious groups responding to climate change? 

• Climate change is the most divisive issue in the U.S.

Sikh groups around the world have united to fight against climate change by planning to plant 1 million trees in 1,820 different locations by November.

The group behind the movement, EcoSikh, was founded in 2009 to connect Sikh values with solutions to environmental issues — and its latest endeavor, the “Million Tree Project,” is its biggest ever. The initiative aims to tackle environmental issues like deforestation and air pollution while also helping people reconnect with nature.

The ongoing challenge has become popular among followers of Sikhism — a religion that originated in Punjab, India, around the late 1400s and early 1500s — especially in India, which still has the largest Sikh population in the world.

Tens of thousands of trees have already been planted across the country since the “Million Tree Project” began early this year. With about 27 million followers, Sikhism is now the fifth largest religion in the world, so EcoSikh’s tree planting effort could have a major impact.

The initiative of planting 1 million trees worldwide is also the group’s way of celebrating what would have been the 550thbirthday of Guru Nanak, Sikhism’s founding father.  “We felt that Guru Nanak, has in every other hymn that he wrote — [there are] 974 hymns in the Sikh scripture — or 80% of them at least, said something about nature,” Singh said.

Approximately 65,000 to 70,000 trees have already been planted worldwide, EcoSikh estimates. In Washington, DC, one of the many locations the “Million Tree Project” has reached, a forest with 550 trees has been established and another one is on its way.

Read the full article about EcoSikh by Sushmita Roy at Global Citizen.