Tuesday April 14, 2009
“Trees planted to cool and shade buildings can help save energy and trees in communities make cities cooler and cleaner,” he said at the launch of the university’s World Forestry Day 2009 at its School of International Tropical Forestry (SITF) here last week.
The text of his speech was read out by SITF dean Assoc Prof Mahmud Sudin.
With tree planting as one of the highlights of this year’s celebration, SITF undergraduates and lecturers planted more than 50 trees of six native species in an area near SITF.
Kamaruzaman said that many people thought there was little they could do to stop climate change.
“Planting trees is an effective way to offset the adverse effects of atmospheric carbon. Carbon dioxide is absorbed by trees, but agricultural plants release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when they are harvested. Hence, there is a need to plant more trees,” he said.
Kamaruzaman said the Trees for a Cooler Earth theme of this year’s World Forestry Day was apt because, besides sequestering carbon dioxide and returning oxygen, trees acted as agents that lower air temperature.
He said that forests were crucial because of the impending issues of global warming and climate change. In addition to direct economic benefits, sustainable forest industries provided significant environmental benefits, including the sequestering of carbon dioxide, he said.
Meanwhile, Mahmud said that SITF would plant trees in areas near the school to replace the acacia trees and hoped to expand the initiative to the whole university.
He said that people’s efforts to plant trees could be strengthened through the realisation that trees provide shade around homes and buildings and less energy would be used for fans and air-conditioning. — Bernama
This article was taken from:The Star Online: Metro: South & East 14 April 2009
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