South Korean artist Myoung Ho Lee encourages viewers to see trees in a new way by photographing each one against an enormous backdrop of canvas in the landscape.

“Trees are attractive objects in that they enable people to think philosophically and appreciate aesthetically. But too often, we don’t recognize the value of ordinary mundane objects around us. Seeing trees in a refreshing way or restoring the value of trees is to awaken all beings on earth in my work,” he told The Morning News. 

It’s telling that while China’s first Great Wall was built to hold back warrior horsemen from Central Asia, its new Green Wall is designed to counteract human-caused climate change.

Fifty years of forest cutting have left few trees to the block ferocious sandstorms that have pushed the Gobi Desert southward, ever closer to Beijing. According to a new study, the Green Wall, a 70-year project to plant a 2,800-mile shelterbelt of trees, could lead to an increase in precipitation of up to 20 percent and decrease the temperature in the area. The project also will improve relative humidity and soil moisture, and reduce prevailing winds. It is expected to be an international model for dealing with the hotter and drier conditions expected due to climate change.

Ilka Halso’s Museum of Nature, where forests and rivers are preserved under glass.

I thought my obsession with treehouses was bad — I’ve been fantasizing about treehouses since I first saw Swiss Family Robinson as a kid — but the design mavens at Inhabitat have really been bitten by the bug. This roundup of their favorite treehouse finds over the past few years ranges from a glowing Japanese lantern-like structure nestled among fir trees on Lake Muskoka, Ontario to two Buckminster Fuller-inspired geodesic domes linked by a canopy walk.

As I said the other day, every arboretum and botanical garden needs at least one of these awesome arboreal aeries. 

Some of the most spectacular treehouses you’ve ever seen, constructed around the world by a company called Baumraum.