Everywhere you turn these days, it seems we're being asked to help plant trees to offset our carbon footprint. Yet, according to author David de Rothschild, it's more complicated than that. It's Essential Skill #39 in The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook:
Plant a tree (mindfully).
"In temperate parts of the globe, such as the U.S. and Europe, one result climatologists fear is that all those trees you plant will absorb and retain heat from the Sun," writes de Rothschild, "contributing to a rise in the temperature of the Earth's surface of up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100 in those regions."
Instead, it's best to sponsor the planting of trees in tropical areas.
"Tropical forests filter pollutants quickly and, with their deep roots, draw up water that evaporates into the atmosphere, helping to foster protective cloud cover that reflects sunlight back into space."
Critics of the tree planting solution point to the fact that when a tree dies -- and decomposes naturally or is burned as firewood -- the tree releases back into the atmosphere all the carbon dioxide sequestered throughout its life time.
That's why de Rothschild stresses the importance of caring for the trees we plant. And when a tree does die, it should be salvaged for lumber or disposed of in a landfill (as opposed to mulching or burning).
Click this link to learn more from the Tropical Rainforest Coalition.
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If planting a tree in the U.S. means absorbing and retaining even more heat from the Sun, that's the last thing we're going to do here in Arizona. We live in Phoenix -- the Valley of the Sun -- where the record temp I've experienced was 120 degrees!
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