hero missions

qpsu climate heroes
supported by acf

mission five: trees and forests

This month in Climate Heroes we are looking at the role of trees and forests in stopping climate change.

With most of the focus in the climate debate being on how to stop carbon dioxide emissions, we can often forget about the all-important natural processes that actively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Protecting forests and planting trees are the only mechanism available on a large enough scale for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Notice: Because we are working to reduce unnecessary printing, this mission kit, and all subsequent mission kits, will be emailed directly to Climate Heroes who have nominated an appopriate email address. Other Climate Heroes will receive their kits via post.

Step 1: Climate Change and Forests

See right for an information sheet to learn about reducing waste and how it relates to climate change. Sharing this information with your colleagues, family or housemates is a powerful way of raising awareness about climate and forest issues.

Step 2: 2. Climate Change Quiz

Email your colleagues directing them to the sixquestion quiz on Climate and Forests at www.qpsu. org.au/climate. It might bust some ‘climate myths’ and surprise you with the answers!

The quiz will be online from Friday 4 July

Step 3: National Tree Day

National Tree Day is Australia’s biggest community tree-planting event.

The event, hosted by Planet Ark, seeks to inspire, educate and recruit Australians to actively care for our unique land and create future generations of committed environmental custodians.

Since Tree Day started in 1996 more than 1.5 million volunteers have planted over 11.5 million native trees and shrubs!

Visit http://treeday.planetark.com/find-a-site/ to find your local group – register your colleagues, family and friends for a local group.

Step 4: The Office Paper Challenge

Last month we focused on cutting waste across the office. For our ‘Greening the Nation’ kit it’s time we focused specifically on cutting down on our paper use – to save energy, water and our trees. The second part of the challenge is switching your office to purchasing recycled paper, if they don’t already.

Step 5: Email Signatures

Saving paper by avoiding unnecessary print-outs is a simple step to take to save our forests and resources.

Reminding people to avoid printouts and take small ecologically friendly actions is a very simple and symbolic step.

Talk to your IT manager about adding email signatures like those below.

Email signatures:

The EPA use:

“Please consider the environment before printing this email” Think B4U Print 1 ream of paper = 6% of a tree and 5.4kg CO2 in the atmosphere 3 sheets of A4 paper = 1 litre of water for a government-endorsed email signuature.

We can use:

‘Reading from the screen makes us green.’

Or make up your own.

Contact

Email us at climate@qpsu.org.au, or call 1800 177 244 if you have any questions.

Remember to visit www.qpsu.org.au/climate to do the climate & forests quiz and log your office paper challenge results.

Good luck!