Causecast

by ELIZAH LEIGH, Contributing Writer

Anyone who’s had the pleasure of ambling through a forest or even a small park will agree that trees, with their rustic good looks, enhance our lives with a scenic beauty that’s hard to match. Beyond their beauty, trees provide Mother Nature’s built-in carbon sinks to protect our atmosphere and our planet. As we’ve claimed increasingly more land to sustain our rabid factory-farmed industry, the priority of protecting our forests has fallen by the wayside.

Remarkably, mankind has finally begun to recognize that trees are far more valuable to us rooted deeply in the ground rather than running through a milling machine. The practice of removing trees from our global landscape is believed to contribute an estimated 20 percent of the greenhouse gases emitted each year. While scientists concur that planting trees to combat climate change should not be a first line of defense against escalating greenhouse gases, it is a simple, cost-effective and beneficial action that can contribute to a positive outcome for our environment.

The chronic issue of forest destruction was recently addressed in London at a Rainforest Fund meeting by longtime eco-proponent, Prince Charles of Wales. Aiming to cut global deforestation rates by an ambitious 25 percent in as little as a five year period, 35 governments – including Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Morocco, Nepal, Britain and the United States – have agreed to ban together and commit to preserving tropical forests. The pledge will purportedly remove as much as seven gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere, which is even more than what the two highest CO2 producing global nations – China and the United States – independently produce in just one year.

Stepping up to the plate with a $275 million commitment, the United States earmarked their proposed funds toward the protection of rainforests in South American Amazon and African Congo basins. Norway wasn’t far behind with their generous $250 million pledge which will help reduce destruction of rainforest in Guyana, despite the fact that the small Latin America nation has generated barely any carbon footprint compared to the rest of the world. Still, they are demonstrating through their Low-Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) that it is incumbent upon all of us to brainstorm ways to make a positive impact on the world around us.

While very few of us may have the opportunity to get involved in grand scale eco-global policy making, there are still quite a few actions that we can all take to help combat deforestation, such as:

• Adopt an acre of forest in any part of the globe, from the Southern Coastal Plain Forests or the Appalachians to California’s redwood forests and beyond.

• Join the Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees Campaign, in which a single dollar donated means one tree planted.

• Check out this list of inspired ideas from Save the Rainforest, with tips for how to help on a personal, professional and global level.

• Purchase holiday gifts on the Rainforest Site, where 100 percent of sponsor money is channeled toward forest protection.

• Volunteer with the Arbor Day Foundation to transform the urban landscapes in your state with trees.

• Support Trees for the Future by giving a tree planting certificate as a holiday gift.

Photo by Azari Nicks, Wikimedia Commons.