[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 38 (Wednesday, March 10, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E392]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                PLANTING TREES TO REDUCE GLOBAL WARMING

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                   HON. CHARLES W. ``CHIP'' PICKERING

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 10, 1999

  Mr. PICKERING. Mr. Speaker, I would like to request that the 
following be included in the Extension of Remarks. It is a op-ed 
written by a Mr. Chester Thigpen, a constituent of mine from Montrose, 
Mississippi, that appeared in the Clarion-Ledger on February 27, 1999.
  Mr. Chester Thigpen has worked his entire life as a tree farmer to 
provide for his family--his wife and four children.
  Mr. Thigpen's first day's work, in 1918, yielded him 35 cents but, 
today he is a successful tree farmer. He has been a tree farmer for 
over forty years and is living the American dream.
  In his editorial, he raises some valuable points that members should 
bear in mind and I encourage them to read this editorial.

           [From the Montrose Clarion-Ledger, Feb. 27, 1999]

             Planting Trees May Help Reduce Global Warming

                        (By Chester A. Thigpen)

       I hope that I can be forgiven for feeling like a bystander 
     in the national debate on global warming. As I try to sift 
     through the news coming out of Washington, the problem seems 
     to pose a high environmental as well as economic danger.
       Yet something can be done about it, if President Clinton 
     and Congress will mobilize Americans in a campaign to plant 
     trees everywhere they will grow, especially on millions of 
     acres of marginal farmland.
       As a farmer in Mississippi, I know something about the 
     value of trees. Stands of loblolly pine on my 650-acre farm 
     provide shade and prevent erosion, and they soak up huge 
     amounts of carbon dioxide.
       There is plenty of reason to believe that a coordinated 
     program to plant trees and properly manage our nation's 
     forests is precisely the way to minimize the greenhouse 
     warming problem, and it can be done without harming American 
     living standards.
       Climate change affects us all, yet I'm struck by how little 
     attention is being paid to actually dealing with the problem. 
     Yes, President Clinton has asked Congress for $105 million to 
     conduct research into how forest can offset greenhouse gas 
     emissions by absorbing carbon dioxide. But convincing proof 
     of nature's role in carbon storage already exists.
       Recently, a team of scientists, including experts from 
     Columbia University and Princeton University, determined that 
     more carbon may be stored by forests and other ecosystems in 
     the United States than is released by industrial activities 
     in this country. Scientists believe that one reason global 
     temperatures have not increased as much as expected over the 
     past half century may be that the forested portion of the 
     Western world has grown during that time.
       Because young trees take in and store carbon dioxide, they 
     act as nature's ``sink'' for vast amounts of carbon. It is 
     through photosynthesis that trees and other vegetation 
     generate life-giving oxygen and store carbon for decades in 
     the form of wood.
       A nationally coordinated program to plant large numbers of 
     trees and improve the health of the nation's forests could 
     have a major impact. A study by American Forests, the 
     nation's oldest conservation organization, estimated that 
     such a program could offset 20 percent to 40 percent of the 
     estimated 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide emitted each 
     year in the U.S.
       Why not launch a serious tree planting effort now? Anything 
     that can be done to save forests and plant trees on millions 
     of acres might have more effect on global warming than all 
     the emission regulations combined.
       Acre-for-acre, U.S. forests store 20 times more carbon than 
     croplands do. Under the Federal Conservation Reserve Program, 
     an estimated 4 million to 5 million acres of eroded land once 
     used to grow crops have been converted to timberland. But 
     with appropriate incentive to landowners, more than 100 
     million acres of marginal land considered biologically 
     suitable for trees--an area three times the size of North 
     Carolina--could be reforested.
       Planting large numbers of trees would provide many 
     additional benefits--erosion control, protection of drinking 
     water sources and better habitat for wildlife. Moreover, 
     forests provide great economic benefits in valuable wood 
     products.
       We should also plant more trees in cities and suburbs. By 
     increasing the amount of shade in residential areas, trees 
     and shrubs reduce the need for air conditioning while storing 
     carbon from automobile exhausts and other fossil-fuel 
     combustion. More trees mean cleaner air, and they provide 
     green space for recreation.

     

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