Good Advice: Just Plant Trees!

Perhaps you’ve seen a recent AP story on the importance of tree planting? This article states that planting a trillion trees around the globe would go a long way towards reducing the effects of climate change.

Swiss scientists, reporting in the journal Science stated: “Even with existing cities and farmland, there’s enough space for new trees to cover 3.5 million square miles (9 million square kilometers).”

The potential positive effect on the planet is great: “…those new trees could suck up nearly 830 billion tons (750 billion metric tons) of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. That’s about as much carbon pollution as humans have spewed in the past 25 years.” 

This seems like a daunting task, but every journey starts with a hopeful first step, right? 

To that end, WV Interfaith Power and Light has launched a tree planting campaign for faith communities, nonprofit groups and inspired individuals. This campaign is titled “Trees of Life.”

Trees can be obtained from anywhere and planted anywhere there is sufficient space; reporting on tree plantings is encouraged on WVIPL’s  website. Pictures of tree plantings can be sent, along with location and contact information for the persons planting them, to WVIPL’s FaceBook site. 

Why is WVIPL taking on such an ambitious goal of planting hundreds, if not thousands of trees in WV this year? Trees of Life is a tree-planting campaign across the state of West Virginia led by WVIPL and faith communities that wish to raise awareness of our common responsibility to make sustainable decisions for our planet in the face of climate change. Congregations at large, environmental committees, youth groups, schools, individuals within the community, and all others are encouraged to plant trees–s few or many as they wish–in a demonstration of their commitment to care for Creation. Tree plantings can also be a meaningful way to memorialize a loved one or a special occasion/anniversary, and these count, too!

Please see the flyer posted here for more information about the who, what, where, when, and why of the WVIPL tree-planting campaign. After your tree planting project is completed, please register yourself and/or your faith community at this same site. 

Contact Robin Blakeman – OVEC’s Huntington area project coordinator, and a WVIPL Steering Committee member – if you have any additional questions.