Some More Tree Facts

A study of Chicago’s urban forest found that increasing tree cover by 10 per cent (an additional three trees per building) would reduce total heating and cooling energy use by 5 to 10 per cent . At a national level, researchers estimate that planting three additional trees for each building in the United States could save more than US$2 billion in energy costs annually (McPherson, 1994; Akbari et al., 1988).

Tree windbreaks have been found to reduce residential heating costs by 10-15 percent, while shade and evapotranspirational cooling from trees have been found to reduce cooling costs by 20-50 percent (Dwyer, 1993; Laverne and Lewis, 1995).

A recent study found that planting shade trees could reduce the need for power plants. Data from California shows that 50 million shade trees planted in strategic, energy-saving locations could eliminate the need for seven 100-megawatt power plants (McPherson and Simpson, 2001).

Some Very Interesting Facts About Trees

-1 acre of new forest will sequester about 2.5 tons of carbon annually. Trees can absorb CO2 at the rate of 13 pounds/tree/year. Trees reach their most productive stage of carbon storage at about 10 years.

-In its "Reforesting the Earth" paper, the Worldwatch Institute estimated that our planet needs at least 321 million acres planted to trees just to restore and maintain the productivity of soil and water resources, meet industrial and fuel-wood needs in the third world, and annually remove from the atmosphere roughly 780 million tons of carbon as the trees grow. This 780 million tons represents the removal of about 25 percent of the 2.9 billion tons of carbon currently going into the earth's atmosphere.

-Planting 100 million trees could reduce the amount of carbon by an estimated 18 million tons per year and at the same time, save American consumers $4 billion each year on utility bills.

-For every ton of new wood that grows, about 1.5 tons of CO2 are removed from the air and 1.07 tons of life-giving oxygen are produced. During a 50-year life span, one tree will generate $30,000 in oxygen, recycle $35,000 worth of water, and clean up $60,000 worth of air pollution or $125,000 total per tree without including any other values!

This information was borrowed from treelink.org.

On Global Warming

I was looking for photos of the Amazon rain forest and came upon one that took me to this great blog with an article about global warming, it set me off on a tangent in his reply box, Sorry Stephen. Here's his blog: Check it out!

Here's the rambling I did on his blog:

Most of my recent thoughts on the subject were pretty well summed up on the final episode, Rare Planet, of National Geagraphic's Earth: The Biography, that was just recently on TV and will be again later this week. Towards the end of the show, the host said something along the lines of, I’m paraphrasing here:

“The earth has gone through many climate cooling and warming cycles and has always recovered to sustain life. Because of those cycles there have been many different dominant species inhabiting the Earth. Right now it is our turn to try to survive through this part of the cycle by doing what we can to pad the fall. We need to worry about ourselves, not the Earth, it will recover.”

I believe that, but I am by no means saying that the most intelligent species to ever inherit the Earth should blatantly do it harm. I think we should do everything we can to balance it out, by controlling emissions of CO2, by using alternative energy sources for everything. It would be for our own good. We may not recover, but the Earth will.

Plant Some Trees or Don't Cut Them Down in the First Place

I have just recently taken on a paver patio job at my co-worker's house and was appalled by her whole neighborhood. Her subdivision is about five or six years old and there was not one tree that was taller than a house. In fact I don't recall any trees that will even attain 30 feet at maturity. It was depressing. I would guess that for those types of developments that trees are considered an inconvenience for their method of building: Clear cut everything, bulldoze everything, throw some houses together, so close together you have no yard, sell them. Good business till they built too many and burst their own bubble. Would think that someone from one of these huge development companies would have taken at least a basic Economics class in College.

(Where's the trees?)

Anyway, I told Sylvia that she should worry about planting some trees on her back property line now, so that when they build and sell a house on the lot behind her, she won't be looking out her window and into the neighbors'. When I said that, it really struck a nerve, I thought she was going to slap me! I was only asking her to get a few spruces. Think that was a tall order? No.. no. Here's one for you.

I love trees/plants in general. Call me a tree-hugger. Here's the idea that was sparked by my interest in trees and bonsai that led to an idea for an innovative "green" irrigation system:

(I bought 3 Giant Sequoias that I want to keep bonsai style. The goal is to keep them at about 6 feet tall. )

Did you know that Giant Sequoias are hardy in basically the northern 2/3 of the U.S. and the limiting factor of where they grow and why they only grow in California is... Water. That got me thinking and dreaming of my own redwood forest once I get the 200 acre piece of land. How could I efficiently keep the 20 Sequoias watered "off the grid"?, because they need a lot of it.

Hummm... Follow the flow... Rain, water runs off your roof, into the gutter, into the downspout, into an underground pipe, into a huge well that you have dug, into a pump that is solar powered by the solar panels on your roof, into a drip irrigation system that waters my own mini redwood forest. Feasible right? That's a good irrigation system for any landscape.

To sum up my rambling, PLANT MORE TREES OR DON'T CUT THEM DOWN IN THE FIRST PLACE. For more great information on or to buy Giant Sequoias or any Redwoods go to: http://www.giant-sequoia.com/homepage/ .

If you are feeling a little lazy and would like someone else to plant a tree for you, we will. GREENIFY NOW is taking donations for our "Plant a Tree" campaign above. Every $2 gets one tree planted in the U.S. where it is needed. E-mail for more info: rrodgers@greenifynow.org

My Power Bill

Hi, this is the first post in my own blog and I'm sorry it's not about me, that will come as this blog goes on. Here's the deal, I currently live in a one bedroom apartment that is by no means huge and my electric bill is $69 bucks for one month's use. That really irks me because the i know exactly how to cut that down by alot but I don't. All I would have to do is dismantle my planted aquarium.

Those lights are crazy energy suckers. They are two 100w VHO compact flourescents that are 500w equilivants if you know anything about light bulbs. They are on for 12 hours a day everyday, and using a ton of power.

I have been looking for an alternative power source but all have been out of my price and praticality range.

I read the popular run your car on water e-book and it sparked all kinds of ideas in my head. Like: What if I could figure out how to have a generator run on just water all the time in my laurdry room and just plug a power strip into that to run the aquarium or even my whole apartment. That never came to fruition, if anyone in Ohio wants to donate a generator for my experimentation I'd be happy to take it off your hands.

My next idea was to install solar panels on the roof of my building, because I could get away with it. My building is only a one-story building, and I have only one neighbor who could care less. That never happened because after looking into it I found that the upfront cost out weighed the ROI for the term remaining on my lease. I may renew but... Now I have found this, and am very interested in trying it. A windmill and homemade solar panels hooked up to a battery bank seems like a more feasible option for a renter. It could be easily dismantled and moved if needed and would supply some energy.

If anyone out there has any ideas please do not hesitate to express them, that is what I created this blog for. If anyone has implemented any form of "green energy" or done anything "green" and would like to show off or just talk about it, do it here. If anyone has any input on how I can reduce my electricity bill without tearing down my fish tank that advice is even more welcome. Bring it on.