T: Is for Trees, Trees and more Trees!

A Forest Grows on a Brooklyn Landfill Planting a tree requires an act of faith. They take years, sometimes decades to reach their prime, but a tree can become a forest. Using plants native to the area, drought-resistant grasses, wildflowers and even cactus someday two Brooklyn landfills will become q place of life, not death. This is the brain child of John McLaughlin the DEP’s Director of Ecological Services. Once a landfill is capped, and covered with soil, methane gas and toxic ooze become harmful not only to the earth but to humans. If you put at least three feet of soil over a landfill’s plastic or clay cap, you can avoid decades of lawn care. You can restore a native landscape that will take care of itself. And you can even start planting…..trees! There is concern rainwater will get into the garbage and cause pollution problems in our waterways. The cost is also not cheep. Try $20 million for this ecological restoration of the Pennsylvania and Fountain Avenue landfills.

What makes global warming so dangerous with the cutting down of the rainforest the carbon from plants and animals, in the form of coal and oil, that has been buried for millions of years. Two German scientists have a solution: Fritz Scholz and Ulrich Hasse from the University of Greifswald idea: Planting forests, which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by landfilling them. For the first time, humankind will give something back to nature that we have taken away. Environmental problems in principle, can be resolved in time. Disturbing soil, releases carbon, the scientists suggest using old mines for their forest landfills. The world would have to plant 3.8 million square miles of forest every year to counteract current global carbon dioxide emissions. That's bigger than the size of the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii). And the scientists themselves point out that it's equivalent to all virgin forests lost in the 20th century.

My suggestion is to implement these changes but lets all do our part. Buy plants and water them. They will give back to you so much more. Burn your paper and try and use less. Create art or other containers from your plastic, cans and other debre. Become and example and it is a F.A.C.T. others will look up to you.