One compelling example comes from Ranga Myneni's laboratory at Boston University. Using satellite images, he found the growing season for trees in the northern United States increased by nearly two weeks from 1981-1991. Foremost, conserving energy and buying more fuel-efficient devices will reduce the use of fossil fuel. Planting trees also helps. According to the Heat Island Group, strategically planted trees in cities can reduce heating and cooling costs by 10 to 20 percent.
Trees also fight global warming by consuming carbon.
Hans Peter Schmid of Indiana University and his colleagues study the carbon cycle in real forests. So planting more trees would reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the air. Planting new trees, though, remains the best way to reduce excess atmospheric carbon dioxide. Programs such as American Forests' Global ReLeaf, which has planted more than 15 million trees, are making a major difference. The average tree in a North American forest ecosystem sequesters approximately a ton of carbon dioxide in its first 40 years of growth.