Shade trees fight global warming in Calif

Sacramento, Calif., has decided that when it comes to battling global warming Mother Nature knows best and nothing is better than planting a tree.
For the past 16 years, Sacramento has been planting hundreds of thousands of shade trees designed to lower temperatures and trap greenhouse gases, the Washington Post reports. Despite research demonstrating the benefit of strategically planted trees, Sacramento's program is a rarity since most U.S. cities have shrinking tree canopies in relation to their population growth. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey says many major utility companies often overlook the connection between urban trees and energy savings. That's not the case in Sacramento where the city's publicly-owned power company offers up to 10 free trees to residents along with advice on where to plant the trees and how to care for them. Rey says the Bush administration is planning a meeting with utilities in an effort to convince them of the financial logic of increasing the number of shade trees across the nation.