An interesting possibility is that today’s stricken economy could be vastly relieved by an Earth Restoration program that could employ many people and pay for itself. According to one calculation a typical tree that lives 50 years provides free, US $196,250 of ecological benefits, including $31,250 of oxygen, $62,500 in air pollution control, $31,250 in soil fertility and erosion control, $37,500 in recycling water and controlling humidity, $31,250 in shelter for wildlife, and $2500 of protein. Left uncut, many species will produce natural services of increasing value for centuries. Roughly this means that a single tree averages $4000 worth of benefits every year of its life. As dead wood it will produce revenue that is only 0.3 percent of its value if left as a live standing tree. The Pembina Institute in Canada places the value of the current carbon stored in Canada’s boreal “carbon bank account” at $3.7 trillion. Insamuch as standing trees are major carbon storage entities, massive reforestation and afforestation are in order – say the entire watershed of the Mississippi.

Our falling water supplies are also related to deforestation. Thompson King, in Water: Miracle of Nature, says that “during rainfalls, bare soil may take in some 5,500 gallons of water per acre per hour. Ground covered with growth such as bushes or grasses can absorb some 25,000 gallons per acre per hour. Forests, however, act like sponges and can absorb more than 100,000 gallons per acre. If rain fall does not exceed .4 inches per hour, good forest land will continue to absorb and store up to 17 inches of rain – more than 400,000 gallons per acre.”

It might be well to keep in mind Robert Ingersoll’s observation that “in nature there are neither rewards nor punishments – there are consequences.”

Bob Harrington – Galena Bay, British Columbia, Canada

Global warming affects have been experienced in Haiti since 2007. One of the missions of the Epiphany Now Foundation is to replace Haiti’s charcoal economy with alternative energy like solar, wind and biofuels. Another goal of EFN is to one day replace the present inadequate electric grid.

Ninety-nine percent of Haiti’s original tree cover is gone and severe storms erode the land and pollute the waters of rivers and streams. A massive, intensive reforestation i splanned in all of the ten states of Haiti. Millions of new trees and woody shrubs (nurtured, planted, watered and protected) are urgently needed.

Severe storms, hurricanes, and earthquakes have battered Haiti causing shoreline erosion, severe flooding, mudslides, mass loss of life and extensive crop damage. Thousands of Haitians have lost their homes in the recent earthquake. It is our goal at the Epiphany Now Foundation to help build shelter for the many refugees needing immediate housing assistance. Our foundation also seeks to replace Haiti’s charcoal economy with alternative energy-solar, wind and biofuels (low tech and high tech), leapfrogging over the present inadequate electic grid.

Haiti was once a green paradise when Columbus arrived in 1592. Today, Haiti is a wasteland, a desert in need of clean water. Ninety-nine percent of the original tree cover is gone. Severe storms erode the land and pollute the drinking water of rivers and streams, also killing coral reefs offshore.

Can a small nation survive in health and live in peace when all of its natural resources are endangered, in ruin – its topsoil washed away, its tree cover gone its water polluted, its coral reefs despoiled, even its air unbreathable with charcoal smoke?