Mission Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation to Cosponsor Planting of More Than 150 Trees at Quarry Lake Park in Fremont, April 2.

(From AScribe)

FREMONT, Calif. -- Mission Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation (MPUUC), The League of Women Voters, and the Tri-Cities Ecology Center, in coordination with James Lawrence, Quarry Lakes Park Supervisor will gather Saturday, April 2 at 10:00 a.m. at Quarry Lakes Park in Fremont, Calif., to plant nearly 140 redwood, native oaks and maple trees to offset their carbon emissions. The activity is a component of a year-long initiative on the part of the Mission Peak congregation's members to reduce their overall carbon emissions.

According to MPUUC's Reverend Chris Schriner, "This project supports one of our primary values: 'to take good care of the Earth because it is our home.' We are blessed we have so many environmentally-minded members, as well as a professional environmental consultant as a member to organize this important kind of initiative."

The project coordinator Justine Burt, a member of the Mission Peak congregation and an environmental consultant explains, "Carbon is released into the atmosphere when fossil fuels like gasoline, natural gas or coal are burned. In modern times the burning of these fossil fuels - in which carbon has been stored for millions of years - combined with accelerated land clearance, has led to unprecedented levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon sinks such as forests and oceans have been unable to keep up and concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have risen dramatically leading to an enhanced greenhouse effect. Climate change scholars say that as concentrations of these gases continue to rise, there will be far-reaching changes in climate (rapid warming in some areas, cooling in other areas). While scientists cannot say exactly what changes will happen and when, there is general agreement among serious climate change scholars that there will continue to be widespread ecological damage, dramatic changes in agricultural production, increasing desertification and rising sea levels."

"Planting a tree is one way to help," continues Burt. "Trees improve air quality and absorb carbon that would otherwise contribute to global warming. Over a 40-year life, an average tree would absorb 1 ton of carbon, i.e., 50 pounds of carbon per year. Since the average Californian consumes energy that results in 7.5 tons of carbon emissions per ...