For those of us who have a stake in the survival of our planet, the year 1989 has a special significance. It marks the centenary of the birth of a man who gave to the world a simple, workable message that would ensure that survival: "Plant more trees". Richard St. Barbe Baker was by any account a remarkable man. Conservator, forester, founder of "Men of the Trees", a conservation group in Kenya, he was perhaps far ahead of his time. In his long, full life he single-mindedly dedicated himself to saving the living planet through the restoration of the earth's ecological equilibrium, at a time when hardly any one was talking about ecology.