In the April 27 edition ….

In the April 27 edition you agreed with a 'Text the Times' contributor that planting a million trees would be a good idea. Why not start in West Memphis? There is a national organization dedicated to planting trees and ground cover in urban enviroments called 'Tree City'. West Memphis has nearly a thousand vacant lots. Some of these have been vacant for decades. Planting trees would have multiple benefits such as cleaning the air of diesel residue from the interstates and other pollutants as well has increased oxygen saturation and ultimately, slightly cooling the city on those hot summer days. [ Editor’s Note: You might be asking yourself why I’m running a 10- monthold message in the paper. So, fun fact: I recently got an email from a reader asking why I had not printed their Letter to the Editor. The email address it was sent from had a “ thread” icon on it, meaning there were additional emails from this sender. I clicked on the icon and found this message from last year in my junk folder unread. I read it and thought it was worth including here in the paper. So, here is my much- delayed response: I love trees. Plant all you want. They certainly look better than the vacant lots you mentioned. They are pretty and they do provide shade.

One thing to make clear, though, is that we can get rid of pollution and global warming through the planting of trees. Recent studies say that it would take 6 trillion trees to have a significant impact on CO2 levels and counter the amount of industrial damage we have caused through said industry… and there simply isn’t enough room on the planet for 6 trillion trees.

Also, we get more oxygen from algae than trees. Anyway, I still like trees… thanks for writing. Sorry it took so long to get back to you]