A Living Crown of Green

I love trees instinctively; they are beautiful and just looking at them gives me a peaceful feeling. But they are also among the most important contributors to the wellbeing of our planet, particularly when we are worrying (or should be worrying) about the warming of our world.  

What is the relationship between trees and global warming?  One of the most important gifts that trees and the forests gives us is something that we desperately need, oxygen. They help complete the earth's balance as they capture greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and give off oxygen to feed our lungs, grow our plants and clean our air and water.  It is a perfect cycle for life on earth.

What are some of the other uses of trees?  They hold the soil and combat storm water runoff and  they reduce erosion, flooding and pollution in our waterways.  Many species of wildlife depend on trees for habitat and trees provide food, protection, and homes for many birds and mammals. 

When we clear forests, however; we cripple our best ally in combatting climate change.  Trees offset what we produce through our industrial uses, burning of fossil fuels and our staggering use of gasoline in our cars, trains, buses and other forms of transportation. Cutting down trees  creates more atmospheric clogging emissions because, as they are felled, they release all the carbon that they have stored.  When they are left to rot or are burned they create even more carbon emission.  

We have been rapidly cutting down trees around the world to make way for growing crops.  Yes, we need farmland to feed the people of our world, but we need environmentally planned farming.  We do not need more burning of the rainforest or bio-invaluable resources.  There are many forms of sustainable and eco-friendly farming that we can use such as:

• Permaculture, a food production system which mimics how plants grow in natural ecosystems. ... 
• Aquaponics & Hydroponics, the use of water in small spaces to grow crops densely
• The use of renewable energy resources like wind and solar to provide power environmentally
• Crop rotation and polycultures where several harmonious crops grow together 

To maintain a healthy world, we need to protect our existing trees and also plant more trees.  Climate warming has helped to fuel the fires that have burned our forests in unprecedented events. We need to mitigate these losses.  Many countries have extensive tree planting programs as do some areas in the United States.  As little as $90 will plant 900 trees annually, enough to remove as much carbon dioxide as is annually generated by the fossil fuel use of the average person in the U.S.

As with all of my environmental blogs, I read books and research on the Internet and I encourage you to do the same to learn more about the benefits of trees.  The subject of global warming is serious but we have many possible solutions to mitigate its effect.  Trees are among the easiest and best.

Why not plant a baby tree today to give Mother Earth a living "crown of green" and make our planet a little healthier?

---