Trees are the oldest, tallest, most massive living things on our planet.

A Bristlecone pine in Nevada's White Mountains was alive when the Pyramids were built. The coastal redwoods in Northern California can grow to more than 350 feet high. And the undisputed champion of most massive living things on earth is the General Sherman, a Sequoia that has a ground diameter of 36 feet and is 275 feet high.

 

Besides being amazing and beautiful, trees and forests are literally our planet's lungs, constantly removing greenhouse gases from the air and producing oxygen for us to breathe. One acre of trees removes six tons of Carbon dioxide and produces four tons of oxygen per year. It's estimated that the world's tropical rainforests - although they only take up 7 percent of world landmass - produce 40 percent of our oxygen. Nature's cycle of waste/reuse is beautifully illustrated in the way trees inhale the CO2 we exhale. But when our factories and cars exhale huge amounts of Carbon dioxide, that cycle is thrown way off. Additionally, widespread deforestation is tilting this cycle even farther out of balance. Unless we takes steps to stop clear cutting of forests, we risk not only losing one of our most beautiful living systems, but the very air we breathe.

Besides cleaning our atmosphere and cycling CO2 back to us as oxygen, tropical rainforests are the most lush and biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet. Each day we lose 140,000 acres of tropical rainforest, 8 acres every few seconds. Biologists estimate that each day 50 to 150 different rainforest species become extinct. In short, we are sacrificing what took nature millions of years to create for the short-term profits of mining, logging, oil, and cattle interests. So what can we do?

Make use of greener materials

Like bamboo. Bamboo is a sustainable alternative to traditional wood products. It has a strength to weight ratio higher than graphite, and a tensile strength greater than steel. It can be engineered into plywood for paneling, hand-finished for durable and beautiful hardwood floors, made into charcoal briquettes, pulped into paper, and its fibers can even be spun into the soft fabric we use to make Save a Snowman t-shirts! (Coming soon!) Where a stand of typical softwood trees takes 50 years to mature, Bamboo can grow 50 feet in 50 days. Some species can grow up to one and a half meters per day. Unlike most trees, harvesting does not kill the plant, so the topsoil remains intact and new crops can be grown from the same roots. Worldwide, 1500 species of bamboo grow from sea level to 12,000 feet. Bamboo also sequesters more CO2 and releases 35 percent more oxygen per stand than an equivalent stand of trees. Bamboo also offers a solution for areas damaged by deforestation and overgrazing. Bamboo's tightly knit root system reduces erosion, lessens water runoff, and can give other plants a chance to establish a toehold.

Eat less meat

Yeah, we know. But we love meat! Take some time to think about the amount of resources it takes to deliver meat to the table. It requires 20 times more land to feed a cow than it does to feed a person. One of the main drivers of tropical rainforest deforestation is the cattle industry, which constantly needs new grazing area. This delivers a double blow to our atmosphere - one, cutting forest down means more Carbon dioxide, and two, cows and other livestock are responsible for 15 - 20 percent of global methane emissions - another damaging greenhouse gas. To produce each pound of meat we consume requires 2500 gallons of water and 16 pounds of grain. Raising a pound of beef emits as much CO2 as burning a hundred watt light bulb for more than 40 days, or driving the average American car nearly 150 miles. By simply eating 10 percent less meat, we can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Plant a tree.

If two children plant a tree it will supply, over the course of its life, enough oxygen for both the children their whole life. Every tree you plant is enough to offset Carbon emissions from driving a thousand miles in a 25mpg car. Check which species grow well in your area. Instead of buying a dead Christmas tree every year, buy a live one and plant it after New Years as a living promise to sustainable living.

Save a Snowman is joining forces with Gaia Culture to help restore the Rainforest in Costa Rica. For every $2 donated, Save a Snowman will plant a native tree in your name, which will provide clean air for generations to come.

Here's how you can be a part of it: