ENVIRONMENTAL

How you can help

Approximately 6000 years ago most of Britain was a rich carpet of forests and thriving wildlife. Man then made his mark by starting de-forestation. Initially this was mainly for simple farming.

More recently (just a few hundred years ago) as we became more so called civilised with the Industrial Revolution and wars, we stripped our land of these precious forests. Trees are the lungs of the World, they breath oxygen back into the air, yet we did nothing at the time to replace them. Britain used to be 75% forest, today it is a mere 5%!

Now Britain 's population, housing and transport infrastructures are growing at an alarming rate.

Carbon is in the atmosphere, most carbon in the atmosphere is in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2). Trees breathe in carbon dioxide to make food for themselves through the process of ‘photosynthesis'. This carbon dioxide is locked within the tree; this is called ‘sequestration'. Therefore, trees play a crucial role in removing CO2 from the worlds' atmosphere.

For millions of years the worlds' carbon cycle was in equilibrium. The amount of carbon entering the atmosphere was equal with the plant life using it. The burning of fossil fuels for heat and power has increased the carbon in the atmosphere by a staggering 25% since pre-industrial times (300 years ago)!
Carbon dioxide does not allow heat reflected by the earth to dissipate back in to space thus creating the green house effect.

Here are some points recently made by the UK Government's leading scientist professor Sir David King…

Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) have risen from about 280 parts per million (ppm) before the Industrial Revolution to 315 ppm in 1957 to a high recently of 379 ppm.

Measurements of CO2 had increased in recent years by average of 1.5ppm annually. In 2002 and 2003 the increase had been more than 2ppm annually. “This is taking us up into relatively dangerous levels of CO2 for our planet!

If warming temperatures one day melted the Greenland ice cap, that would mean global sea level would ultimately rise by 6 – 7 meters.

“Is there a point where the melting becomes irreversible” he was asked “Yes there is, when the temperature around Greenland is 2.7'c above the pre industrial level”. We're already 0.6'c above it, and to avoid raising temperatures too far we should prevent atmospheric CO2 levels going beyond 500ppm.

Asked how long it would take to reach 500ppm, Sir David answered “We're now seeing annual rises of 2ppm, so on present trends it will only take us about 60 years!” He went on to say levels of CO2 in the atmosphere already represent a danger.

The world had better adapt to prepare for signifant change ahead, and also reduce green house gases.

Climate change was “the most serious issue facing us this century and beyond.”

As you can see these facts that Sir David quoted are alarming.

Most scientists now agree that the excess of carbon dioxide and other green house gases we've put into the atmosphere will heat the air causing sea levels to rise and could possibly contribute to the flooding of many major cities and areas around the world. In addition, there maybe more severe weather storms/hurricanes, more severe droughts, more crop failures, water shortages and more starvation, and spread of diseases around the world.

For Britain global warming may have the effect of actually making us colder to that similar of Ice Land . These recent predictions are due to the fact the global warming could effect the gulf stream which is a warm ocean current moving past Britain keeping us warm. If this were to happen the consequences could be catastrophic for us.

The average British person going through their daily life of work, travelling back and forth, yearly heating & electricity bills and consuming goods from shops will cause 11 tonnes of CO2 to be released in to the atmosphere every year!

To offset this and make your self carbon neutral you would need to plant 17 trees.

For us to carry out the clearing ceremony on your written emotions and to plant the blessed tree the fee is £48.60. For more information on our clearing ceremony see “The Service” and “Tips for Writing”.

If you are reading this website and live in another country, this is not a problem. The trees we plant may be planted in Britain but it should be remembered that these are not just taking in CO2 from Britain but are removing it from the World's atmosphere.

These native broad leafed trees such as sessile oak, pedunculate oak, hazel, alder, black popular and silver birch etc, are very good at absorbing and locking in CO2.

Continue to next page