Plant a tree for your blog

I am up much earlier than usual today. I’m not entirely sure why. I often get up to use the bathroom, and then go right back to sleep for a few hours, but this morning I lay there listening to the birds.

It has been hot here. Last night we slept with all of the bedroom windows open and the attic fan on, pulling in as much of a breeze as humanly possible. It was warm, but nice. And so this morning the windows were all still open and the birds – so many different kinds – were all singing. It was quite loud, and almost what I imagine a jungle might sound like.

I snuck out of bed and came downstairs, opened the back door to let in some air, and sat down to write. The birdsong has all but stopped. It’s funny how they do that, letting loose at the top of their lungs at 5 and 6 in the morning, but once it’s a more reasonable 7am they quiet down.

I came down here to write about trees. In particular, the good things trees do for the planet. The trees, I am sure, are the popular bird hangout in my yard at the crack of dawn, but more importantly, trees absorb CO₂ emissions – a fully-grown tree absorbs eleven pounds of it per year.

That’s nothing to sneeze at. We all have a carbon footprint. This blog, just by existing, has one. According to the folks at Retale, who have initiated a Green Gestures campaign for bloggers:

According to a study by Harvard physics Ph.D Alexander Wissner-Gross, each visit to a web page results in an average of 20 milligrams (0.0008 ounces) of CO₂ emissions. For a blog with average traffic (around 15,000 page views per month), the blog emits 8 lbs of CO₂ each year.

Do you see where I am going with this? One adult tree makes up for the carbon footprint of one average blog, and then some.

Through the Green Gestures campaign, Retale is partnering with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant trees for blogs. In fact, they are planting a tree for Polka Dot Cottage, simply because I shared this information with you.

If you would like to have a tree planted to offset the carbon footprint of your blog, visit Green Gestures, and learn how easy it is! (Spoiler alert: all you have to do is write a blog post and then send them a link to it. Easy peasy.)

The world outside my back door is starting to wake up.Someone just turned on a leaf blower or some such contraption. (I wonder what the carbon footprint of that thing is…) Sounds like it’s time I go dig up some breakfast and get this Wednesday officially started.

Have a lovely day! (And plant a tree for your blog!)