Sex Pistols star Johnny Rotten has planted his first ever tree at the Phantom Planter's headquarters in Belfast.
The former punk rock frontman, who now goes by his real name John Lydon, helped a new plum tree put down roots at Belvoir Memorial Orchard.
Son of Irish parents Jimmy and Eileen, John has strong links to Belfast with one of his three brothers living here. But the man behind the Phantom Planters couldn’t have been happier when he gave them his support last week.
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“It’s great promotion for the phantom planters,” says the man who started it all. “[We] still can’t believe we had Johnny Rotten/John Lydon at the phantom planters HQ planting a plum tree!
“This was the first tree Johnny has ever planted too,” he added. “You have no idea how good this feels for me knowing that my ripples are having an impact on the likes of Johnny Rotten.
“It’s been my dream and vision right from the start to make phantom planting cool and trendy and having John Lydon himself come along to the orchard and phantom plant a tree is just the best feeling ever.
“Fair play to Johnny, I don’t think he realises how many trees will be planted by individuals all over the world when they see this, he really has made phantom planting a tree much more cooler.”
To Johnny, he said: “Thanks again man, it was an honour to have you.”
The Phantom Planters, who have now put “thousands and thousands of trees” in the ground across NI and further afield, told Belfast Live “it was absolutely brilliant” to see Johnny Rotten “come along and promote the trees”.
While there, the founding phantom told us they talked about carbon offsetting as well as the impact of greenwashing. The Phantom Planter continued: “Johnny Rotten said he doesn’t trust [those] that are so-called greenwashing by planting trees.
“He’s right. There is a lot of greenwashing going on because they are planting those monoculture trees to offset their carbon emissions.
“They are bad for the environment and it’s not just offsetting their carbon emissions, they are planting them so they can cut them down again in 20 years time to turn them into firewood. We need native trees planted by the ‘paramilitrees’ all over Ireland.”
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