JOYFUL PIECE #13

Coming soon to your urban landscape: TREES!

When it comes to our environment, many fellow earthlings are still singing the songs fed to them by special interests that want to make a profit at the environment’s expense.

It is uplifting, indeed, joyful, to see successful efforts by progressives to expand the green environment. One such effort is the Biden administration’s funding of more urban trees. Trees are the lungs of our Central Texas communities— they purify the air that we breath, trap CO2 to curtail the global warming trend, and cool microclimates within urban landscapes.

The Central Texas cities of San Marcos and Pflugerville, and numerous other cities throughout the nation, have been awarded a portion of the $1 Billion that the U. S. Forest Service has allocated in grants to add urban trees. The loss of trees, from severe storms generated by increasing global warming, will begin to be corrected by this initiative. 

The importance of trees in the urban landscape cannot be ignored. There is a cooling effect achieved from the shade and transpiration of healthy tree canopies. Tree shade mitigates the heating of the local environment by building surfaces and pavements that are heated by sunshine, and that reduces the cooling demand for homes and buildings. Consequently, as the demand for energy for cooling drops, a reduction in fossil fuels that generate the electricity to cool homes and businesses occurs. Those fuels generate CO2 and other greenhouse gases that are heating up the planet. Thus, the forces driving global warming are weakened.

The cooling effect is only one of the benefits from increasing the number of trees. Urban landscapes are softened, beautified, local wildlife comes back, and it all makes for an attractive environment. Residents are happier in a beautiful urban setting that improves the real estate market as well. Colorful fall foliage is also another highly visible benefit of increasing the number of trees.

Increased panic over the loss of business among fossil-fuel industry folks drives a lot of disinformation about global warming. It is very encouraging to see these proactive moves from our national leaders to improve the quality of life in Texas and the nation. This initiative moves us closer to a net zero greenhouse gas emissions economy by 2050.

You can read more about this nationwide program at this link from the U S Forest Service: Urban and Community Forestry Grants - 2023 Grant Awards and the Central Texas story at this link: San Marcos, Pflugerville get grants for forests.

Rejoice in this victory for our planet!