Trees...Too good to be true!
Anne van Oorschot, Environment Committee Co-Chair
I have always loved trees. I was a champion tree climber in my youth and can still instantly spot ones that are "good climbers." Towering pines surround my family's vacation cabin in northern Minnesota and if I shut my eyes in a pine forest anywhere in the world, the whish of the wind through the pine needles will instantly transport me back to Minnesota and the summers of my youth. Here in the Netherlands I have a large walnut tree and a magnolia tree in my yard. For my last birthday, my son gave me a white birch tree and its graceful presence in my backyard is a beautiful reminder of my own northern Minnesota roots. While tree seedlings do invade my garden and fallen leaves do need to be raked, where would we be without shade, the soothing rustle of leaves in the breeze, the wonderful autumn colors, the crackle of dry leaves underfoot and the many other pleasures we owe to trees and forests?
Important Functions
In addition to being beautiful to look at, trees also perform important services. They stabilize soil, thus preventing floods and erosion, and their fallen leaves provide mulch to create more fertile soil. Trees are home to many animals and they can serve as windbreaks along roads and between fields. Trees provide wood for construction, heating, and cooking and play a part in many secular and religious celebrations. In these days of talk about climate change, global warming, greenhouse gases, and "carbon sinks", there is an even more important reason to appreciate trees. This requires a little explanation.
Greenhouse gases naturally blanket the Earth and keep it about 33 degrees Celsius warmer than it would be without these gases in the atmosphere. Over the past century, human activity has caused an increase in concentration of the main greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorocarbons. Radiation from the sun passes through the Earth's atmosphere where it is absorbed by the surface of the Earth, causing it to warm. Part of the absorbed energy is then radiated back to the atmosphere, but the radiation cannot pass through the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These gases absorb the energy and re-emit the waves downward, causing the lower atmosphere to warm. This global warming can result in more severe floods and droughts, harsher storms, a rise in sea levels and a redistribution of the Earth's precipitation; in short, climate change.
The most prominent greenhouse gas in the Earth's atmosphere is Carbon Dioxide (CO²), making up 76% of the total. Humans have contributed to carbon dioxide emissions in two main ways: by burning fossil fuels for energy and by deforesting the planet. Every year humans add over 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by these processes, and it is up thirty percent since 1750 (www.envirolink.org/orgs/edf/sitemap.html).
Trees, however, absorb CO², store carbon in their tissues, and exhale oxygen. In one year, an average tree inhales 12 kilograms (26 pounds) of CO2 and exhales enough oxygen for a family of four for a year. Forests are among the ecosystems that can serve as carbon sinks, or reservoirs that store carbon. In spite of this, worldwide deforestation is occurring at the alarming rate of about 13 million hectares per year, an area the size of Greece or Nicaragua. The loss of natural forests around the world contributes more to global emissions each year than the transport sector!! Curbing deforestation is a highly cost-effective way to reduce emissions.
"Plant for the Planet" Campaign
At the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Climate Change conference held in Nairobi in November 2006, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai introduced the "Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign" for 2007. (www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign) The goal of this major tree planting campaign is for individuals, communities, business and industry, and governments to participate, with the objective of planting at least one billion trees worldwide during 2007. At the FAWCO Conference in March 2007, the FAWCO Environment Committee picked up the challenge and launched a "One Member One Tree" campaign. It is hoped that all of FAWCO's members - over 15,000 individuals in 78 clubs in 38 countries - will join in to meet this challenge!
The time is indeed at hand to help the environment and planting a tree(s) is a very enjoyable way to do it. Trees seem almost too good to be true, but lucky for us, they are true!
