Nice site to visit

There are some great stories and videos on here: http://www.planetforward.com/.

Here is a story that caught our eye: City Trees Help Combat Urban Heat Islands
by American Society of Landscape Architects | 10:45 am February 2nd, 2012


"Nature provides solutions. Increasing the tree canopy in cities is one way to fight both poor air quality and urban heat islands. Research shows significant short-term improvements in air quality in urban areas with 100 percent tree cover. There, trees can reduce hourly ozone by up to 15 percent, sulfur dioxide by 14 percent, and particulate matter by 13 percent.

U.S. trees remove some 784,000 tons of pollution annually, providing $3.8 billion in value. Furthermore, a single large healthy tree can remove greater than 300 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. In fact, New York City’s urban forest alone removes 154,000 tons of CO2 annually. Through their leaves, trees also provide evaporative cooling, which increases air humidity. Shaded surfaces may be 20-45 degrees cooler, and evapotranspiration can reduce peak summer temperatures by 2-9 degrees."

There's a nice video on the site that accompanies the story. Take a look. Interesting number to think about: U.S trees remove carbon at an equivalent value of 3.8 billion. You can imagine the economic value, in terms of reduced medical costs, this process represents.

We look forward to covering more stories on Planet Forward.com.