FAIRVIEW: Earth Day is every day

By ANDY KEGLEY/Columnist

Every spring, I try to plant a few more trees. Some years, like the one in between jobs a long time ago, I planted thousands of pines around the county, a regular Johnny Pineseedling I was. Last spring, I planted a half-dozen heirloom apples into bone-dry soil in early April only to watch them thirst for water throughout the bone-drying summer. Two have survived, best I can tell now a year later. I can still salivate about the possibility of orange pippin apples tickling my taste buds in another decade or so.
Of late, though, planting trees is taking on a global importance, thanks to the recognition that global warming isn’t just a trendy fad, but accepted science with doomsday proportions. With everyday emissions of more and more (and more expensive) petroleum burning into the atmosphere, we’re approaching the tipping point of when the global body’s fever-induced illness becomes terminal, and global systems start to shut down.
Plants are one natural way of absorbing some of the extra carbon being emitted, and business is taking notice. Another logical and natural way to slow down the date when the tipping point is reached is through cutting back in the emissions, but it appears that is asking too much of our way of life. One business solution, the result of the genius of the market, is the remarkable new trading system where the polluters can buy carbon credits from those industries or countries who’ve cut back on emissions, a sort of transference of responsibility.
Another system that is trying a smaller-scale version of buying and selling of carbon credits involves various environmental groups offering to plant so many trees in exchange for a modest donation, and at the same time, showing each of us how much carbon our typical home dumps into the atmosphere. Go to http://www.carbonify.com and you can find a handy on-line calculator that will ask you a short series of questions, like how many miles you drive in a month, how many kilowatt hours of electricity you use in a month, how many people live in your home, and whether they eat meat (don’t get me started on this one—my household’s beef consumption is probably 95 percent on-farm grown, with zero input of grain—I can get real righteous on this, and make you a heck of a deal on some local, grass-fed beef).
Enter your answers, and presto, the calculator screen reveals the total annual tons of carbon you personally are responsible for, and the number of trees that needed to be planted to offset those emissions. And for just $2.95 a month, you can sponsor tree plantings through a donation to Carbonify!
Well, for $75, including shipping and handling, payable to the state Department of Forestry, I received 500 white pine seedlings. Those 500 seedlings will cover my household emissions for almost 1.5 years, as my family and I are responsible for about 50 tons of carbon emissions annually. That’s about average—each of us in the U.S. contributes something like 10 tons per person; in less developed countries, a much smaller carbon footprint is made.
Do I feel even better about the seedlings I’ve just planted? You bet. My sons and I had an afternoon or two of Earth-day experiences, taking me back three and half decades to another spring day of tree planting with my siblings and parents. Those trees are still standing, and sucking up their fair share of carbon, sequestering it for our sins. Heck, I’d do it for a lot less than $2.95 a month, or would that be, a lot more than $2.95? It doesn’t matter. Long live the trees.
Andy Kegley manages a non-profit community development agency, in addition to a non-profit family farm in the Fairview section of Wythe.