5 reasons we must plant trees

Have you ever planted a tree? I live in the beautiful Sunshine State of California, and I took a trip to the Oregon Coast a few years ago, and I can’t tell you how much fun it was to drive through the thick forest wherever I went. Why do we feel good when we travel through a forest full of trees? If you are curious, my last post Why living with trees makes you happy! read it once.

Do you know why we must plant this tree that makes us humans happy?

Let’s explore two of the five reasons today why we must plant trees.

1. Air Purification 

As mentioned in Why trees make us happy, trees make the air clean by adsorbing fine dust and pollutants in the air. You know why New York’s Central Park is called the lungs of New York. If Central Park had not been established in New York, it would have been a very unfavorable environment for people to live in due to the exhaust fumes from so many cars. When you feel stuffy with the fresh air in the city, just go to Central Park and you will be able to breathe fresh air. For New Yorkers, this Central Park is like an oxygen tank.

 According to data published by the Urban Forestry Network, on average, an acre of new forest can handle about 2.5 tonnes of carbon per year. Young trees absorb CO2 at a rate of 13 pounds per tree each year. Trees reach their most productive carbon storage stage at about 10 years, at which point it is estimated to absorb 48 pounds of CO2 per year. At that rate, they release enough oxygen back into the atmosphere to support two people. If we planted 100 million trees, we could save about 18 million tonnes of carbon per year, which in turn could save American consumers $4 billion per year in utility bills.

2.Reduce the Greenhouse effect

If you live in California, where the sun is hot, you don’t know how grateful you are and how much you miss the cool shade under the trees. Even on a hot summer afternoon, if you go under a tree, it blocks the sun’s rays, so you can feel the freshness immediately. As such, trees contribute to reducing the greenhouse effect by providing shade not only for the houses we live in, but also for office buildings in the city center. In other words, it is said that it is effective to reduce the frequency of use of air conditioners that burn fossil fuels to generate electricity in buildings in places with many trees by nearly 30%.

As such, trees are used as very important tools in the fight against the global greenhouse effect. Planting a tree is the most cost-effective operation to reduce excess CO2 in the atmosphere. According to Urban Forestry Network, If every American family planted one tree, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere would be reduced by one billion pounds annually. This equates to almost 5 percent of the amount that human activity pumps into the atmosphere each year.

**Please also look forward to the next 3 of the 5 reasons why we must plant trees.