PLANT A TREE  

 

The average American uses the equivalerit of 7 trees every year. That's over 1 1/2 billionn trees used annually in the U.S.  

 

BACKGROUND.

 

Trees can, over time, remove large quantities of carbon dioxide (the main "greenhouse gas") from the atmosphere. This makes planting a tree an effective way to fight the greenhouse effect. And it's easier than you might think.  

 

TREE TALK

10,000 years ago, before agriculture, more than 15 billion acres worldwide were covered by forest. Today barely 10 billion acres are forested. Between mid,century and 1980, the forested surface of the earth was reduced by roughly 25%.

 

In some places deforestation is proceeding at a runaway rate. In California, urban trees are dying or being removed at four times the replacement rate. Each year, 28 million acres of tropical forest are destroyed; some countries, like Nigeria, which once were large lum­ber exporters, havc become net importers.

 

The interdependence between trees and human and animal life couldn't be more fundamental: We require oxygen and produce carbon dioxide (C02) ; trees and other plants require C02 and pro­ duce oxygen. Any significant loss in forested land directly affects the Earth's atmosphere for other forms of life.  

 

By consuming C02, trees mitigate the "greenhouse effect" It's estimated that each mature tree consumes, on average, about 13 lbs. of C02 per year.

 

When trees in a forest die naturally or are responsibly harvested, the trees are replaced and there is no net loss of C02 to the atmos­phere. But when a forest is burned or clearcut, much of the C02 is lost and not recaptured. So on balance, the forests we lose (net loss) account for about 25% of global C02 emissions.

 

By providing shade and evaporative cooling, trees also affect lo­cal temperature‑again, urban trees even more than rural ones. Clusters of urban trees shading a home can cool ambient air temperature by 10 degrees, reducing local energy demand (for air condi­ tioning) by 10 to 50%. Moreover, the energy saved reduces global warming by about 15 times the amount of C02 absorbed by those trees. 

 

 

SIMPLE THINGS TO DO

 

If you'd like to plant a tree, but don't know how to begin: Call or visit a local nursery, horticultural society, arboretum or botanical garden. Tree‑planting is a lot easier than you think, and many peo­ ple will be not only helpful, but enthusiastic.

 

Consider talking with neighbors to see if you can begin a neigh­ borhood‑ or community‑wide planting effort. You'll be surprised at how much "native intelligence' you can uncover.

 

Don't just stick a tree in the ground and ignore it. Like other growing plants, trees need a little care for the first two years­ including water, vertical support, and mulch.  RESULTS 0 Planting 75 million urban trees would reduce C02 emissions in the U.S. by 18 million tons, and energy consumption by 25 billion kilowatt‑hours (worth $2 billion), annually, after 10 years.

 

Planting trees has a cumulative effect; each tree you plant will provide benefits for years to come. For example: If only 100,000 people each plant a tree this year, the trees will still be absorbing over a million pounds of C02 annually in the year 2010. But if the same people plant a tree every year from now until 2010, the trees will absorb over 20 million pounds of C02 in that year.