Lipkis was just 15 years old, but his age didn't stop him from taking action. He organized fellow campers, who tore up a large parking lot in the San Bernardinos and planted 8,000 trees to replace those that had died. That event marked the birth of TreePeople, and Lipkis has remained the president and, some say, the heart of the organization to this day. They help heal the Earth. The Heat Island Group, a team of government-sponsored scientists who develop solutions to the heat island effect, says that on warm afternoons, the demand for electricity in L.A. rises nearly 2 percent for every degree Fahrenheit the daily maximum temperature rises.
Planting trees saves energy and money.
It also reduces the amount of fossil fuels burned to generate electricity, improving air quality. Even a relatively small increase in the area devoted to trees and green space in L.A. could return the city's temperatures to close to the levels of the 1930s. Models developed by the Heat Island Group for the Los Angeles basin show that summertime high temperatures could be significantly reduced through increased plantings coupled with lighter colored roofs and pavement. Citizen forestry For all these reasons, planting trees is Lipkis' passion. In 1998 alone, TreePeople mobilized and trained over 700 volunteers to care for 1,800 trees on Los Angeles school campuses and neighborhood communities.