Lawns may be nice, but they don't absorb a lot of carbon dioxide. Plant a tree. A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Shade provided by trees can also reduce your air conditioning bill by 10 to 15%. If you have children, plant one tree for every year they are alive and measure their growth each year. Plant them in a pubic park so that everyone can enjoy them. Tired of sitting in the sun to watch your children's sporting events? Ask if you can plant trees on the sidelines of municipal fields. Donate a tree to your local civic association, school, or church. Plant roses in your front yard. Plant a garden in your back yard and save money on vegetables. If you live in a housing development, petition the Association to allow you to plant trees in public areas. Even better, build benches under them to promote community living. The Arbor Day Foundation will send you 10 trees for a $10 donation.
22 comments:
I've planted about a dozen trees in my life. I like going back to the old house every now and again to see how they're doing.
Is that your little punkin?
yeharr
What an awesome picture!
indeed. Planting a tree really makes you feel good as well
That is indeed my punkin! We took that picture when he was about 3 months old. I'll post more current ones later, but I thought that one went with the post.
Great suggestion,
I've planted 8 trees this year. I also reap the benefit of cooling shade, not to mention all the oranges, lemons, tangerines, pecans, mangos, pears, peaches, and avocados.
Beautiful Baby!!!
I live in the woods. 'Tis a magical place. The trees are alive and make great company. When their time is up they don't mind being cut down and burned to keep me warm.
Godwhacker - love the handle. We have a resident wingnut that is going to love you.
I have more trees than I care to count in my yard. It was one of the prime reasons I bought the property I live on.
If godwacker wacks all the petty little sniveling gods that show up here, he's fine with me!
UWL:
Help my poor pea sized right wingnut brain. The pic of the baby crying is to illustrate...what?
I dug up my lawn and planted an ornamental garden.
I have a background in horticulture. Lawns are horrible for the environment. They aren't meant to be clossly manicured etc..They deplete the soil of nutrients. They need to be feed chaemical fertilizers and weed killers. These are harmful to other plants and even animals. plant nice ground covers like pachysandra, clover, stachtys (lambs ears). They are actually legumes (bean family) and have a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria in the soil. They actually produce nitrogin!
Godwhaker,
Thanks on both counts. A picture of him crying is rare, and I'll post a beter one at a later date. We had an orange, banana, and lemon tree in FL and really enjoyed everything we got out of it, not to mention the break on the air conditioning bill!
Cranky,
PA is a highly wooded area, hence the name. My son is already accustomed to walking through the woods, and loves it when we put a peice of bark in his hands to feel. Of course, it goes in the mouth, but what can you do?
Exmi,
That's great, but there are lots of other places to plant trees. Donating them to a local elementary school is always a good idea, and municipal parks are always looking for donations.
Rue,
That's the plan for us wen we ge a place with a decent sized lawn. Rigt now we're in a townhome and there's only so much we can do. Fairmount Park in Philly has an excellent Japanese garden, if you're ever near enough to take a look. In fact, our park system here is full of arboretums.
UL,
This is a positive post and Im going to keep it that way. I have no idea what causes your unique brand of negativity, but I will say this - whatever it is, I hope it goes better for you. Many of the things I have prolems with are out of my control and I recognize that, so I take pleasure in what I CAN do. One of the things I can do to help account for the amount of Carbion Dioxide I personally put into the air is to plant trees. If you choose not to follow my lead, there's nothing I can do. Just make sure you're not doing it for the right reasons. If you refuse to help the environment because you hate hippies and the people who believe in global warming, that's more than a litle selfish, but your perogative. If it's for another reason, I'd love to hear it. It seems to me, though, that a Christain might be a little more concerned with the condition of the Eart his Lord has given him, as well as very concerned with the manner and tone with which he approaches others. Of course, that's just my perception.
The picture was used because of the hppie nature of my son's dress. He's crying because he doesnt like the headband. I thought it was cute and wanted to share it. Next time I'll put up a picture of him in his "Already Smarter Than Bush" T-shirt.
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein is the best children's book ever, I believe. He also wrote the raunchiest lyrics to Dr Hook songs, by the way.
United, I think that's a great idea, but I think I have a better one. Plant a Bush. ;-)
UWL:
Now I understand, you're using your son to illustrate the need for us to be concerned for the next generation. Makes sense to me finally. What a cutie-boy he is!!
As to your comments about me, I have absolutely no idea where you come off like this towards me. Do you think I burn rubber tires for Jesus? Do I punch hippies for the love of God?
UWL, settle down just a bit. I may buzz your tower periodically, but I'm not the Christian nutcase you assume me to be. You've had too many run-ins with those folks; it's time that you run into the sane types...like me!
As a Catholic Christian, I am very aware of our need to be stewards of the earth, since we are the only creatures on earth that has the capability to do so. Also, I see the drastic need to reach out to the poor, and support businesses that pay a fair wage to their employees. The Chinese "junk" that we get to purchase support slave wages. I look for "free trade" products to purchase. Frankly, my yard has so many trees and shrubs, I cannot plant a tree in it; my wife and I grow vegetables and herbs and get into more and more "slow foods."
You have an obvious monologue going about me that simply is untrue. What I will NOT do is succumb to the hype and fear that is driving the "Global Warming" movement, not to mention the lack of true science and logic in it. I think the earth is going to steadily warm up until the sun decides to cool down. Regardless of the earth's temperature, I choose to live responsibily.
Debunk this science and logic -
The sun warms the earth, and this heat is reflected into the atmosphere as long wavelength heat. The earth's atmosphere is composed mainly of nitrogen, oxygen and greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide, CO2, is a major greenhouse gas. As the CO2 level increases, temperatures rise. This rise in average world temperature has been called global warming. Unless the present CO2 level is reduced, warming will continue to increase. Enough global warming will eventually result in climate change. There is no dispute, and never has been, about this fundamental science. There are challenges to the details, but none to the physics and chemistry.
Paleontologists have taken ice core samples found in deep glaciers to measure past CO2 levels. These measurements are plotted on graphs corresponding to centuries of time. This data show a recent exponential rise of 30 percent in carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. This exceeds all previous concentrations that go back 10 million to 20 million years. Data before 1900 shows a relatively constant concentration range of CO2. The fluctuating, relationship between earth's average temperature and levels of CO2 were never higher than today. The exponential rise of CO2, since the late 1900s, coincides with the exponential rise in population and our burning of oil, coal, and gas, here and in other countries such as China and India.
The increase in the world temperature also causes sea levels to rise, as atmospheric inversion in temperature warms the sea. There are two main reasons why this happens, the first being that the thick icy glaciers at the poles begin to melt, adding water to the sea. Polar ice melting also releases more carbon, that was trapped in the ice, adding still more CO2 into the air. A second reason is that ocean volume expands as the water temperature rises. If the current carbon emissions continue, some predictions say that by 2100 AD, the sea will have risen by about three feet. Besides displacing world coastal populations in Europe and Asia, for the U.S. it would mean the Everglades and Miami would be under water, and Orlando would become a seaport. This prediction was from a respected scientist from Colorado while attending a scientific convention at Dartmouth College in March of 2007.
There have been periods of warming in the past. The difference is that now the warming pattern is exponentially occurring in a short time period and is directly related to human activity - activity that is continuing to produce an escalating pattern of carbon emissions. Walsh jumps from describing weather pattern changes and warming periods that have occurred in the last few thousand years to talking about a million years, and does not explain what he means by "quite severe," since there were either no civilizations or very few people to be affected.
The United Nations has six agencies concerned with specific areas that are mandated to set international standards and regulations. These deal with issues that cross borders and depend on international cooperation. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) monitors global weather from stations set up to collect data located around the world, and develops agreements on weather-related matters. The stations are run by governments and persons who live in the various places, so WMO scientists are citizens from different countries.
Source - This is from a LTE from a phyisicist in our local paper.
This turned into a discussion on global warming when in actuallity, it was meant to be a discussion on planting trees. There are unnatural fields all over the country - golf courses, housing developments, playground parks, etc... While these things are nice to have and provide recreation, they replace the natural habitat of the surrounding area. Though it may not seem to have an impact initially, the long-term ramifications of so much "green" space remain to be seen, the leas of which is soil errosion. Trees, however, provide recreation (climbing), food (in the case of fruit trees), shelter (shade), and a natural exchange of oxygyn and carbon dioxide which cannot be matched by the grass on a golf course or the smattering of trees in a municipal park. It seems tha buzz words are not the problem here. The mere suggestion tha a person get up off of their ass and do something - ANYTHING to improve their natural habitat is met with a surreal anger.
Sorry UWL - But my policy is to never let go unchallenged unsubstantiated attacks on climate science from people who have proven they don't understand it.
I will educate, Damn it!
Cranky,
That wasn't necessarily directed at you. I think as much needs to be discussed about global warming as possible. I thought this would be a prett easy post, but apparently, anything good for the environment is seen as "hippie crap".
There was a good piece on 60 Minutes last night about Antarctica's melting Ice Cap. The lead scientist is a former Global Warming denier who could no longer deny the science. HE proved the case pretty thoroughly using a simple explanation of ice core samples to show how the amount of greenhouse gas has increase exponentially since the beginning of the industrial revolution.
Ignoring the truth here is no longer an option. It is a stubborn denial in the face of reality. It's just like the German citizens ignoring the stench and smoke coming out of the death camps.
I agree, I just don't know what can be done with these people anymore. They're not fans of the facts.
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