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Our Qualifications to speak out: |
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For more than 30 years, the staff of TREES FOR THE FUTURE has been helping people plant trees, then forests, that bring participants important economic and social benefits. Through our program, whole communities are working together to save the world's most degraded lands. The many benefits these fast-growing, permanent, trees bring allow the participating families to save their homes and way of life.
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The benefits from these trees spread far beyond these remote villages, to our own homes, schools and communities as well. That's because these trees also remove from the global atmosphere great quantities of carbon dioxide, the major "greenhouse gas" responsible for global climate change. This program takes this carbon and turns it into things people need such as food, clothing, shelter, medicines, organic fertilizer and humus - eventually returning the carbon to the soil. |
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Trees for the Future helps communities bring trees back to degraded lands. |
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Our program has helped people plant nearly 40 million trees. Every year, these trees remove and sequester more than a million tons of carbon dioxide from the global atmosphere, replacing it with life-giving oxygen. As the evidence of global warming becomes ever more obvious, we believe our program proves that the great threat of global warming can also be turned away - if enough of us, here and in the world's developing communities, can work together for our common future. For that reason, we are here providing answers to questions that we are commonly asked about global warming. Because the threat is real - and imminent, we seek your ideas as well. |
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-The Staff |
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Is Global Warming really happening? |
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YES! Virtually the entire scientific community agrees that it is real, that it is taking place right now, and that it is caused by human activity, especially the constantly increasing use of fossil fuels. Over the past century, this has raised the average temperature on earth by about 1.3 degrees F (see Diagram 1). These increasing levels of carbon dioxide (see Diagram 2) and other greenhouse gases have indeed magnified the Greenhouse Effect (see Diagram 3).
Even this small increase is already causing significant natural changes, as can readily be seen in the rapid melting of the polar ice caps causing the seas to rise, and by the increasing temperatures of ocean waters which, scientists are convinced, will result in at least eight (8) hurricanes in the season now starting. |
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Diagram 1: Average global temperatures are increasing so fast that the ecosystems of flora and fauna throughout the world cannot adapt quickly enough. www.epa.gov
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Diagram 2: The life-threatening rate at which atmospheric carbon-dioxide emissions have increased over the past 50 years continues non-stop. nasa.gov |
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Rising average temperatures and seas levels are also a reality for most countries, including our own. The Chesapeake Bay and the Mississippi Delta both lose a number of islands every year to rising water levels. Countries like Bangladesh and Tivalu are losing most of their coastline and low lying lands, forcing Tivalu to sign a treaty with New Zealand so its population has somewhere to go when the water levels submerse their island nation. |
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Farmers in the US and around the world are confused about changing climate, rain patterns, drought, and temperatures. |
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Can anything be done about it? |
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YES! The first and most obvious choice is to reduce dependence on fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas - replacing them with energy from sun, wind, waves, tides, organic fuels, and other sustainable sources. |
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Diagram 3: Current levels of CO2 continue to trap heat in the earth's atmosphere everyday via the Greenhouse Effect. www.epa.gov |
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While this can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases" (GHG's) actually entering the global atmosphere, which already holds dangerously high levels of CO 2 and other GHG's, we must also remember that reducing the use of fossil fuels will do little if anything to bring down those levels of CO 2 already in the atmosphere promoting the Greenhouse Effect (see Diagram 3) . |
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How can these atmospheric levels be brought down? |
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Through a natural process called photosynthesis (see Diagram 4), which is the process by which plants remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for plant growth, and by which the plants give off oxygen to replace the CO 2, atmospheric levels of CO 2 can be brought down. In this way, nature has always been able to maintain a reasonable balance between plant and animal populations.
At least until recently. Over about the last 120 years, the use of fossil fuels has increased many times over. Introducing all this formerly-stored carbon into the atmosphere (see Diagram 2), with no corresponding mechanism to take it back out, has resulted in high levels of GHG's in the atmosphere, allowing celestial heat (from the sun) to enter our atmosphere, but blocking much of this accumulated heat from escaping. |
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Diagram 4: Through photosynthesis, one tree planted in the developing tropics can remove 50 lbs of CO 2 from the global atmosphere. www.nasa.gov |
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Together with this, the world is experiencing the destruction of an area of forest as large as New England every year. Where these forests once sequestered many billions of tons of CO 2 , the accompanying burning has released much of this carbon back into the atmosphere, while these lands are rapidly becoming deserts. This is one of the important reasons TREES FOR THE FUTURE helps people bring tree cover and forests back to these devastated lands. |
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Importantly, it is the places where Trees for the Future is working, the tropics and sub-tropics of the developing world, where tree planting, reforestation, and sustainable land management best maximize levels of photosynthesis (see Diagram 5). |
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Diagram 5: Trees for the Future works in the photosynthetic hotbed of the world, thereby able to sequester carbon dioxide many times faster than projects in temperate climates. www.nasa.gov |
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What about Energy Efficiency? |
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While increasing energy efficiency is a worthwhile activity, by itself it can do little to reduce the emissions entering the atmosphere. Human populations continue to rise. Americans could become more efficient, but with industries and automobiles growing so rapidly in numbers (see Diagram 6), the efficiency will not decrease overall emissions. Furthermore, people, especially the more than 70% of the world's population living in the Developing World, seek to improve our living standards, and that will continue to require more energy. |
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We can't help ourselves by doing less harm. Instead, it's a matter of doing more good! Part of that, of course, is to develop new sustainable energy technology. Much more will come only by restoring the world's natural resources, literally turning the deserts back into sustainably-managed forests. That's possible. It's happening now. |
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Diagram 6: Industry and transportation are the leading sources of GHG's, making the most impact in the global atmosphere, and these sectors are increasing globally every year, in spite of advances in energy efficiency. www.epa.gov |
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Is Reforestation/Agro-Forestry a Cost-Effective Solution? |
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YES! Since 1988, TREES FOR THE FUTURE has helped people, mostly in the uplands of the world's developing countries, to plant nearly 40 million trees. Every year, these trees remove and sequester more than a million tons of carbon dioxide. This is in addition to the more than 50 benefits they sustainably bring to the participants and to the environment. |
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Because these trees are being planted voluntarily by the people of these communities, on their land, and for their sustained benefit, the cost per tree planted (less than ten cents) and the one-time cost per ton of carbon sequestered (less than $4.00) makes this, by far, the most cost-effective way to address this grave threat. |
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Should Americans and American businesses get involved? |
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YES! It's our future too. Although the United States has not signed the Kyoto Treaty, by which the world community has promised to reduce GHG emissions causing global climate change, the United States is, far and away, the greatest producer of GHG's (see Diagram 7). In fact, we are responsible for about 1/4 of the total worldwide emissions. |
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Moreover, recent surveys indicate that more than 90% of Americans both understand the issue and are greatly concerned about it. They are making their concerns known in the market place, increasingly patronizing businesses that share their concern and that are making an effort to reduce the threat.
The American economy also depends very much on international trade, with trading partners in Europe and elsewhere who are committed to the Kyoto protocol. These partners are beginning to ask why they should continue to trade with businesses in the United States which are making no effort to reduce these GHG emissions.
In response to this, some US-based businesses have begun showing their concern, supporting and initiating projects that address the related issues of climate change and destruction of the world's forests and other resources. |
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Diagram 7: The United States emits more GHG's per person than any other country. www.epa.gov |
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Should we when sign The Kyoto Treaty? |
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The question is: What do we gain through this treaty that we can't accomplish, faster, better, and more cost-effectively, by ourselves? |
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People, here and around the world, understand the need to stop polluting the atmosphere. They believe, correctly, that this can be done as an important part of saving the global environment and that, because trees help clean the air, they can do the same for the global atmosphere. |
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Already we're hearing that the Treaty is a symbol of good intentions, rather than a means of making significant reductions in global emissions. We see credits supposedly earned by throwing an imaginary fence around an existing forest, thereby "saving it from loggers". We see credits earned from factories that have long been permanently closed, supposedly reducing emissions now. |
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We see extremely high annual costs per ton of emissions traded, with virtually none of this investment going to the communities directly involved. We see a growing number of players - giving themselves titles like "carbon brokers", "carbon exchangers", "aggregators", "consultants", and "verifiers". All together, they carve a large chunk out of these "emission offsetting" fees, with virtually none of the investment reaching the people most affected by the combined effects of deforestation and global warming: the people who will, ultimately, be the ones who will plant the trees the world needs. |
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We find that many of the existing carbon exchanges don't even permit "carbon sinks" (a name given to agro-forestry, reforestation and other tree planting projects) to be traded on their exchanges despite the fact that this activity has convincingly proven it is the most cost-effective way to reduce emissions going into the atmosphere, while also offering a means to remove carbon already there. |
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We find that some American carbon brokers won't permit the planting of trees outside the United States despite the fact that we can plant and maintain more than 80 trees in a developing country of the humid tropics for less than the cost of one tree in the USA (because people there desperately need them) - and that those trees in the developing country grow three times as fast, thereby sequestering three times as much carbon. |
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What is meant by a Carbon Audit? |
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This is a way for a business, or an individual, to determine the amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted by their home or business over a period of time, usually one year. |
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It totals the emissions from all sources, including heating and cooking, electricity usage, fuel and lubricants used by trucks and automobiles, long distance travel by air - anything that involves the use of energy from fossil fuels. We learn of concerned individuals and businesses spending a great deal of money for such audits. |
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That need not be. TREES FOR THE FUTURE can work with you to perform such an audit, as we have assisted many businesses. We think you'll be surprised how much energy your home or business uses in a year - and how little it will cost to offset the resulting carbon emissions, year by year, by planting trees. |
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Access the Carbon Offset Worksheet by choosing one of the following formats: |
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Global CoolingTM Business Carbon Offset Worksheet PDF version |
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Global CoolingTM Business Carbon Offset Worksheet Microsoft Word version |
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or Call (1-800-643-0001) or email
find out how to become a Global Cooling Business and/or to order
the Global Cooling Answer Book. |
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