Letter to the Editor: Trees give us life

Dear Editor:

This is in response to the letter by by Suzanne Dodd. In the last sentence, she wrote, “I do think trees can add to the environment but this is the wrong way to go about it.”

I agree with her wholeheartedly. Trees help the environment. In fact, trees allow us to live. A tree gives oxygen. This oxygen is what gives us life.

In exchange, we give the trees carbon dioxide (CO2). The tree takes the CO2 and through a process called photosynthesis, it returns oxygen to us. Free. How beautiful!

They get CO2. We get oxygen. This process continues indefinitely while trees are available; if there are no trees then the CO2 goes up into the atmosphere and along with methane, water vapor and other gases it warms up the planet and produces climate change (please see Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act at CitizensClimateLobby.org).

A tree can absorb as much as 48 pounds of CO2 per year. A person produces 2 pounds of CO2 per day. So we produce 40 times more CO2 than a tree absorbs. We need a lot more trees to make up the difference.

Regarding the point that the City is not doing this the right way; please get involved and help people plant more trees. We need more trees. They give us life.

For my life, the life of our children and grandchildren, we need trees.

Guido Rivero
Downey