20 October 2019, Laguna Quezon Land Grant, Siniloan, Laguna. On 22 August 2019, Hilerei Dela Fuente, a medical student from St. Luke’s Medical Center College of Medicine-WHQM, also Associate Head of the Standing Committee on Environment for the Sagip Bayan Student Group (SBSG), was organizing a tree planting activity with FEED as part of their group’s mission to extend the advocacy of biodiversity conservation to medical students.
Despite their very busy schedule and year-end exams, they managed to make it by the 20th of October to plant 75 native Philippine forest trees at the over 9,000 hectare protected reserve rainforest at the Laguna Quezon Land Grant, one of the two land grants in Siniloan, Laguna managed by the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), FEED’s first and longest LIVING LEGACY partner.
May the Forest be with you Always!
Thank you EARTH WARRIORS from Sagip Bayan Student Group of St Lukes!
- Alex Valenzuela
- Denisse Yans Dela Torre
- Hilerei dela Fuente
- Jasmine Interior
- Karren Tangonan
- Katrina Feliciano
- Kevin Cristobal
- Krystal April Joy Curso
- Micah Javier
- Monica Tangonan
- Patrick Joseph Del Campo
Photo Journal (c/o Hilerei Dela Fuente)
How Planting Trees can Help Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
There are many ways you can shrink the size of your carbon footprint: bike to work, eat less meat, turn down your thermostat. All of which are great.
But there is one way to reduce your emissions that also makes your property and community more beautiful, improves water quality, and provides numerous economic and social benefits… planting trees!
Wondering how? Here are just a couple ways in which trees are vital to reducing carbon emissions and so much more.
Natural Carbon Eaters
Every living thing on Earth is made up of four basic elements – carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. Those four elements make up about 96 percent of your body, and most of a tree’s roots, trunk, branches, and leaves.
While we humans get most of our carbon through eating, trees breathe it in the way that we breathe in oxygen. When a tree breathes, it inhales carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen – the exact opposite of humans. As a tree matures, it can consume 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year (among other greenhouse gases like ozone), and releases enough oxygen for you to breathe for two years!
Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and releasing oxygen in its stead also helps limit global warming, providing for a cleaner, healthier climate.
So, by planting trees, you can help clean the air and fight climate change!
The significance of the shade provided by trees cannot be understated.
Trees in an urban setting make temperatures in cities bearable. According the to EPA, the shade from trees, in combination with the water vapor they release, can reduce peak temperatures by as much as 20–45°F (11–25°C) compared to unshaded areas.
When shade is cast on an office building or home, internal temperatures can drop 8–10°F. Some estimates say the shade from a single tree can save the same amount of energy it takes to power 10 room-sized air conditioners for 20 hours a day!
And a tree’s energy saving abilities don’t stop during the winter. Trees provide important windbreaks around buildings to reduce heat loss by as much as 50%, lowering heating costs and energy consumption – and saving you money!
This reduction in energy goes a long way when it comes to shrinking your carbon footprint, because more than a third of U.S. carbon emissions are caused by the production of electricity.
Beyond Carbon Benefits
Helping reduce carbon emissions is only one aspect of how trees help improve our lives.
Trees have an incredible ability to absorb and retain water. As rainwater falls, much of it gets picked up by trees, preventing it from ending up in storm drains. On average, a mature tree in a city can absorb up to 1,000 gallons of rainfall every year that would otherwise need to be pumped and filtered, requiring additional energy.
In New York City, urban trees help retain nearly 900 million gallons of rainwater annually, saving the city more than $35 million dollars in stormwater management costs.
Trees also provide social, economic and health benefits. They create jobs, shelter, medicine and so much more (check out the Six Pillars that explain why trees are vital). These more indirect benefits of trees help raise people out of poverty and achieve sustainable development which ultimately improves our environment.
As more people gain access to cleaner sources of energy, improved water treatment facilities, and so fourth, our environment will most certainly feel the benefits.
What can you do that will have the biggest impact? Here are some guides that can help you “take your climate action to the next level”(Earth Day Network)
In a new report published in September 2018, the world’s leading climate scientists made their starkest warning so far: our current actions are not enough for us to meet our target of 1.5C of warming. We need to do more.
- How to Act on Climate Change – A User’s Guide for 2020 and beyond: https://www.earthday.org/campaigns/climateaction/
- Top 10 things you can do about climate change: https://davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/top-10-ways-can-stop-climate-change/
- Ten simple ways to act on climate change: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181102-what-can-i-do-about-climate-change
Members of the Sagip Bayan – Student Group will work together with the medical students of St. Luke’s College of Medicine to:
- Have the proper exposure that will instill awareness on the current community medical problems affecting our country;
- Be able to participate in activities that will allow medical students to develop and practice their social accountability as future medical professionals;
- Be able to provide proper environment that will build camaraderie among colleagues.
For more about SBSG: https://www.facebook.com/pg/SagipBayanStudentGroup
St. Luke’s College of Medicine- William H. Quasha Memorial (SLCM-WHQM) is the medical school of the St. Luke’s Medical Center, the first JCIA accredited hospital in the country. SLCM is interested in identifying applicants for a Doctor of Medicine degree who aim for academic excellence with compassion, integrity, and commitment. Our administration, faculty, staff and graduates are committed to serve the wholistic medical needs of all sectors of society. We are looking for students who are best characterized by a strong desire to develop into exceptional clinicians and/or academicians as leaders of the medical profession, and innovators in biomedical science, clinical care, research, public health and safety.
More here: https://stlukesmedcollege.edu.ph/
In 2015, the Philippine government submitted to the United Nations the country’s commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The country committed to reduce its carbon emissions by 70 percent by 2030. The carbon dioxide reductions will come from the sectors of energy, transport, waste, forestry and industry.
Join us! Help us reverse the Earth’s “hothouse climate” tipping point.
Tree-Planting with FEED
© Fostering Education & Environment for Development, Inc.