THE CARE FOR THE EARTH PROJECT:
CELEBRATING TREES!
A big part of the Care for the Earth Project is promoting the “Billion Tree Campaign,” coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme, to help care for the Earth by planting trees all over the world. The “Billion Tree Campaign” encourages corporations, governments, organizations, and individuals to make pledges to plant trees all year long. The Gatherer Institute recommends that the actual planting be done by 
“Trees for the Future,” an award-winning non-profit organization who can plant a forest of 1000 trees for $100 and plant 100 trees for $40.
The “Billion Tree Campaign” is the biggest tree planting effort in the history of the world. Over a billion trees have been pledged to plant in just the first five months of 2007! To learn more, visit the United Nations website: www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign.
“When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope.” Professor Wangari Maathai
Professor Wangari Maathai at the Billion Tree Campaign launch at the United Nations Climate Crisis Conference.
Care for the Earth Tour: The Little Hawk Show
Between January and August 2008, Little Hawk will bring the message of caretaking and celebrating trees to a world ready to listen in the South Pacific, Asia, Europe and North America via the Care for the Earth Tour. Little Hawk is an eloquent moralist and his profound philosophy of caring for the earth is simple enough for children to understand, and comprehensive enough to inform policy. The Care For The Earth Project seeks to educate and empower by exposing the world to Little Hawk’s stories and music. All who hear these stories and witness Little Hawk's musicianship are changed forever. For additional information about the Care for the Earth Tour, please send email to: info@carefortheearth.org.
Care for the Earth Walkabout 2007
The Care For The Earth Project will also involve individuals in "Walkabouts" that promote empowerment and leadership. These are media events involving large numbers of adults and children, and the mobilization of resources, media, and corporate sponsorship. The 1st Annual, 2 week, 165 mile, New Jersey Walkabout will begin this summer in South Toms River on July 7th. For any questions or additional information about the Walkabout please send email to: walkabout@carefortheearth.org.
How You Can Help
The easiest way to help is to make a donation by clicking on the "donate now" button below.
To sponsor a kid to go on the Walkabout, go to our sponsor a kid page. For information about Corporate Sponsorship for the World Tour please contact John Pritchard: john@carefortheearth.org. To become a Volunteer, please go to the "Your Support" section on the main Gatherer Institute website at www.gatherer.org. For any questions or additional information about the Walkabout please send email to: walkabout@carefortheearth.org.
With all that said, I invite you, one and all, to please join us and participate in "The Care For The Earth Project" in whatever way you can. At the very least, plant some trees and reduce your energy consumption in the home and with your car. Every little bit counts.
We hope our Gatherer Institute message, that "we are caretakers, not only of each other, but of the earth itself," will speed the day when all life is more respected and we can live together in a good way.
Frank Cipriani
Founder & CEO
The Gatherer Institute
The purpose of the Gatherer Institute is to teach that "we are all caretakers - not only of each other, but of the Earth itself." The purpose of Little Hawk Productions is to bring the message of Little Hawk to the world.
Support the Care for the Earth Project and Make a Tax Deductible Donation When you click on the "Donate Now" button below, you will enter our donation page and see a "Designation" area where you can type the word "Tour" or "Walkabout". This is how we know that your donation is to support the Care for the Earth Tour or the Walkabout. Thanks so much for your contribution.  |
The link above will take you to the donation page for the Gatherer Institute. When you make a donation you will be using the "Network for Good" Giving System so you can be certain that your charitable donation is 100% tax deductible.
ARE VALUABLE & IMPORTANT
Trees are important, valuable and necessary to our very existence. It's not too hard to believe that, without trees we humans would not exist on this beautiful planet. In fact, some claim can be made that our mother's and father's ancestors climbed trees - another debate for another site. Still, trees are essential to life as we know it and are the ground troops on an environmental frontline. Our existing forest and the trees we plant work in tandem to make a better world.Trees give us so much!
"The very air we breathe is improved by the presence of trees." Mary Kay Woodworth
In addition to all the great medicine (such as aspirin from tree bark or medicinal herbs from leaves, twigs, and roots); wood to build houses and furniture; food from the apple, pear, banana and orange trees; and of course all that delicious Maple tree syrup:
1) Trees Produce Oxygen
Let's face it, we could not exist as we do if there were no trees. A mature leafy tree produces as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year. What many people don't realize is the forest also acts as a giant filter that cleans the air we breath.
2) Trees Clean the Soil
The term phytoremediation is a fancy word for the absorption of dangerous chemicals and other pollutants that have entered the soil. Trees can either store harmful pollutants or actually change the pollutant into less harmful forms. Trees filter sewage and farm chemicals, reduce the effects of animal wastes, clean roadside spills and clean water runoff into streams.
3) Trees Control Noise Pollution
Trees muffle urban noise almost as effectively as stone walls. Trees, planted at strategic points in a neighborhood or around your house, can abate major noises from freeways and airports.
4) Trees Slow Storm Water Runoff
Flash flooding can be dramatically reduced by a forest or by planting trees. One Colorado blue spruce, either planted or growing wild, can intercept more than 1000 gallons of water annually when fully grown. Underground water-holding aquifers are recharged with this slowing down of water runoff.
5) Trees Are Carbon SinksTo produce its food, a tree absorbs and locks away carbon dioxide in the wood, roots and leaves. Carbon dioxide is a global warming suspect. A forest is a carbon storage area or a "sink" that can lock up as much carbon as it produces. This locking-up process "stores" carbon as wood and not as an available "greenhouse" gas.
6) Trees Clean the Air
Trees help cleanse the air by intercepting airborne particles, reducing heat, and absorbing such pollutants as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Trees remove this air pollution by lowering air temperature, through respiration, and by retaining particulates.
7) Trees Shade and CoolShade resulting in cooling is what a tree is best known for. Shade from trees reduces the need for air conditioning in summer. In winter, trees break the force of winter winds, lowering heating costs. Studies have shown that parts of cities without cooling shade from trees can literally be "heat islands" with temperatures as much as 12 degrees Fahrenheit higher than surrounding areas.
8) Trees Act as Windbreaks
During windy and cold seasons, trees located on the windward side act as windbreaks. A windbreak can lower home heating bills up to 30% and have a significant effect on reducing snow drifts. A reduction in wind can also reduce the drying effect on soil and vegetation behind the windbreak and help keep precious topsoil in place.
9) Trees Fight Soil Erosion
Erosion control has always started with tree and grass planting projects. Tree roots bind the soil and their leaves break the force of wind and rain on soil. Trees fight soil erosion, conserve rainwater and reduce water runoff and sediment deposit after storms.
10) Trees Increase Property Values
Real estate values increase when trees beautify a property or neighborhood. Trees can increase the property value of your home by 15% or more.
by Steve Nix, Forestry Editor, About.com
PLEASE JOIN US IN SUPPORTING...
Rainforest Action Network protects forests and the rights of their inhabitants by campaigning to break America’s oil addiction, promote sustainable logging, and bring green ethics to Wall St.
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is the nation's most effective environmental action organization. They use law, science and the support of 1.2 million members and online activists to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things.
ForestEthics is a nonprofit environmental organization with staff in Canada, the United States and Chile. Their mission is to protect Endangered Forests.©2007 Little Hawk Productions. All Rights Reserved.
