The climate crisis - climate change, global warming, ocean acidification - is the greatest challenge human civilization has ever faced. It is very daunting to address as an individual, particularly when our government is currently doing the completely wrong thing: continuing to subsidize fossil fuels.Years ago I read that the #1 thing an individual could do to help fight the climate crisis was to buy a more efficient car. We bought our 1st Prius in 2005; my current 2016 Prius gets ~55 mpg driving around Lexington.
Just recently, tho, there was another idea. A July 4 Scientific American article discussed a study which concluded that planting trees everywhere possible could offset "two thirds of all the CO2 humans have generated since the industrial revolution".
Wow! Plant trees! Surely all of us love trees! Plus, planting trees near your house will eventually shade your house and cut down your summer air conditioning bills.
We should all get behind efforts like our own Reforest the Bluegrass and Branching Out programs.
Lexington housing developers are currently doing a great job of infill development; please look at adding as many trees as possible to your developments.
On July 31, I read that Ethiopia set a new record by planting 350 million trees in 1 day. How about we establish a competition, who can plant the most trees?
On bad days, I figure it's too late - greed/capitalism will trump the survival of the human race.
But, maybe not! Pitch in, plant some trees!
Chris Heinz
Lexington
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Plant Trees!
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The letter was published in the Lexington Herald-Leader Friday August 16, 2019. I thought their limit was 250, but it was 200. I edited down a little but submitted > 240 words. They cut the para w Ethiopia, and the "greed/capitalism" clause also. Not bad edits, the last was trolling, oops!
Here's the link to the H-L letter.
https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article233975067.html
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