Called the trillion trees act,s an effort that was made more um public by president trumps support of that at the davos World Economic forum. Tell us, congressman, what does this act propose . Well, this is an act that does just what it says, plant trees across the globe by 2050, for the u. S. To do our share oft that. Lott s a whole more, though. Our biggest tool that we have are forestsnd kee as far as mitg climate issues. When we utilize those forests and keep them sustainable and working and active, we royal have the best tool thats out there thats widespread, its natural, and its very economical to sequester carbon out of the atmosphere with fr forests. You come to this as a forester yourself, the only one in congress, a graduate of yale, a masters in forestry there. This must have been music to your ears when you heard the president getting behind this re effort. Yeah,is abo its something t near and dear too me. If you look at the planet, takn theres 3 billion tree the in the planet, and we do a good jot of taking care of our forests. Trees of but to take care of the forest we have got. Thats partly whats in the bill, not only to plant trees but to take care of the forests that weve got. Then the neat thing about trees is they produce wood which by dry weight is 40 to 50 pure carbon. When we harvest a tree sustainably and make a product out of it, the carbon stays in the wood. The table, part of the wood underneath, you see wood all around the studio here, that carbon was pulled out of the atmosphere decades or even centuries ago, and it remains in that wood. So this bill has a component to it to promote sustainable building practices, which can do go a long ways towards reducing atmospheric carbon. Not only can we sequester carbon in the trees but we can harvest those trees and weve got an endless amount of storage where we can pull carbon out of the atmosphere, it goes through the forest, into building products, and its stored there. People are catching on to this, especially in my state, where we have a lot of beautiful forests, good, Sustainable Forestry practices. The university of arkansas, where i did my undergraduate work in engineering, they built two fivestory mass timber dormitories, moved into them last fall. Theyre the largest wooden building project in the country. Are those as safe as a steel or concrete building structure . Absolutely. If you put the Design Standards out, and you have to meet all the fire codes, theres been a lot of testing on using wood in buildings. If you think of a big log in a fire, it chars from the outside but it takes a long time to burn into the middle. And the neat thing about wood, it heats up, it retains its strength. Thats one of the first questions that are asked. Its just up the road from the university of arkansas, youve got walmart, building their new Corporate Headquarters and in their announcement they said they would build it out of sustainably grown arkansas wood which is good for local economies there too. So its for instance, that walmart facility will have about 17 Million Pounds of carbon sequestered in it when they complete it. Its a building for 15,000 employees, its more like a college campus. Bruce westerman our guest, congressman from arkansas. Were talking about Climate Change more broadly. We welcome your calls and comment comments. How can u. S. First of all, whats the number, this is a trillion trees worldwide, whats the estimated number this act would propose planting in the u. S. . Theres 300 billion trees in the u. S. , thats about 10 of the worlds population of trees. If we were to do our fair share which i think well do more than that, it would be 100 billion trees over 30 years or 3. 3 billion trees a year. The cool thing is were already planting 2. 5 trillion trees in the u. S. , were talking about 800 million more trees to plant. Were going to do this and get the public involved. Weve got a fifth grade forestry challenge. We want to help youngsters understand how photosynthesis works, the benefits of Sustainable Forestry management and Good Building practices. Part of that program will be to supply seedlings so this cannot only be a classroom experience but a hands on experience. Were opening that up for nonprofits and corporations and ngos, they can come together and help supply these trees. Were getting an overwhelming response from groups that want to participate. In that 3. 3 and 5 billion trees that are planted newly, who is the largest is that the federal government, is that industry . Industry by far plants more trees than anybody else. When you talk about Sustainable Forestry in my home state of arkansas we plant three or four trees for every tree that we harvest. And something we forget, trees were reproducing long before we learned how to plant seeds in a nursery and transplant those seedlings. Trees naturally regenerate. You can do certain forestry practices which will skaus Natural Regeneration to occur. You can get exponential more trees sprouting than we can ever plant. We can get more trees just by doing Natural Regeneration, especially on our federal lands. I know its more of a worldwide issue, but when you as a forester look at issues like the amazon and the rainforests and clearcutting and fires that happen, how concerned are you that that sort of thing might happen in the u. S. . Weve seen that in the past in the u. S. You know, we didnt understand forestry. Its kind of a new science, really. You mentioned i went to the yale Forestry School. It was the first Forestry School in the country, started by gifford pinchot. Relatively speaking, for science, thats not that long of a history. We figured out the Science Behind forestry and how to do it correctly here. But part of the true and tree act is to help across the globe to provide Technical Assistance to countries that may be behind in understanding how Sustainable Forestry works. We want to stop deforestation. Again, forests are the best carbon eating mechanism that we have. Its an amazing science when you think that sunlight can shine on a leaf that has a chloroblast inside the cell, it excites the water and Carbon Dioxide and causes the hydrogen to go over to the Carbon Dioxide, releases oxygen back into the atmosphere and stores the carbon in the tree for as long as that tree is there, as long as that wood is maintained. Now, when that tree burns up in a forest fire, the carbon goes right up in the atmosphere. When it falls over and dies and insects chew it up, it goes back usually as methane when its chewed up by insects. We can intervene in that, use the wood for a lot of different projects and reduce the carbon in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, since weve been measuring atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, in 1958 in hawaii, 315 parts per million, now its 411 parts per million. Using air pockets, we know that going back thousands of years, it had never been above 300 parts per million. So youre fairly concerned about man made Climate Change . Yeah, theres no question that since 1800, weve put more carbon into the atmosphere. So you hear a lot of ideas about, we got to quit putting so much carbon in the atmosphere. People rarely stop and think, what do we do about the carbon already in the atmosphere . How do we get it out of the atmosphere . A tree, and thats the most effective tool. Well go to linda from minnesota. Hi there. Caller good morning, bemidgi, im up in the sticks in northern minnesota, i live in the forests. Im 65 years old. Both my parents worked in the forest industry. I planted my first tree when i was 1 year old and i have continued planting trees every year since then and i must say that, hey, after 65 years, its finally great that the republicans are on board and think that this is a good idea. But trees are not the only thing that are causing Climate Change, right . And so lets talk about trump turning back the clean water. So you want clean air for your kids to breathe but you do not want clean water for your kids to drink. My suggestion for you if you are serious is get ahold of greta, because you want to talk about what the young kids want in this country, they want greta. So listen to her. Get some ideas from her and lets try to move forward, and thank you, sir. Thank you, ive been to beautiful bemidgi, minnesota, even in the wintertime when its frozen and cold up there, but im glad you mentioned water. We think about trees in terms of Teddy Roosevelt called them the lungs of the earth. But if you look at some of roosevelts early speeches, i just went back and reread where he addressed the First AmericanForest Congress in 1905 and he talked extensively about how Important Trees are for water. And ive said all along, we think of trees as the lungs of the earth, theyre kind of like the kidneys of the earth as well. Roosevelt talked about how if we wanted water in the west, how important it was to protect the watersheds and the timber around them. We know thats good science. If you look at new york city and boston, their water comes from sustainably managed forests. Over twothirds of the Drinking Water in the United States comes from forested areas. So youre exactly right on taking care of water. And thats the beauty about forests, is its not only good for clean air but we get clean water, Wildlife Habitat and all the other benefits that go along with a healthy forest. We go to texas next, john, the republican line. Hi there. Caller good morning. Im in east texas in the piney woods. They take out the trees and they put more in than they take out and weve always had that and its good for our environment here. But listening to the caller previous, on Climate Change, they blame trump. They want to make it a political issue. Where i come from, background, im 50 years old, but ive studied the bible, and the earth is the lords in the fullness thereof and this is his planet. Hes not going to let anything happen to it. He holds the deed to it. So its always wanting to do one thing to one industry and think thats going to help. The problem is, youre not going to get the rest of the world to do anything. China and india will not do nothing. And if they dont, we can do all we want to and it wont do one bit of good. And i would like to hear your comment on that. Thank you. Thank you, john. Youre a neighbor there, my district borders in the state of arkansas all of where arkansas borders texas. Another beautiful part of the country down there in east texas and piney woods. But i agree with you that god is sovereign but he also tells us that were to be good stewards of what hes given us to carry carrycaretake. Thats what we should do, regardless of what others do, and we can be leaders in showing them how to be good stewards. Thats what the act is about, it takes care of our responsibility here at home to take care of the forest land and the timber that we have, but weve also got programs in there to help educate other countries. I can tell you, ethiopa planted 350 Million Trees in one day. So you can plant a lot of trees if you have the gumption to do that. And i think we can see changes around the world. Youre exactly right, the most Greenhouse Gas emissions are coming from china and india right now. And people dont realize that the u. S. Is leading the world in reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions. Weve reduced our Greenhouse Gas emissions more than the next 12 countries combined who signed onto the paris climate agreement. So theres a lot more we can do. But trees are the obvious answer, i think, as the first big step in addressing this problem of carbon in the atmosphere. You remember the Natural Resources committee, how much traction is your proposal getting among democrats on that committee and more broadly in the house . Im getting a lot of good feedback about the bill, talking to the democrats about cosponsoring the bill. Its really something, i think if people will look at the Science Behind it and what were trying to achieve with this bill, you know, were in washington, d. C. , somebodys going to disagree with it, but i think its solid on the facts, its sold on the research. This is i can bring you stacks of research papers. And its interesting, since ive been working on this, ive been reaching out to some academics, ive just showing that the most effective thing we can do to mitigate carbon is to have healthy forests, where were not burning them up in forest fires, where were growing more wood on the forests, where we using the products off of the forests and generate these residual chips and sawdust when you saw lumber, and thats energy that can be used as a renewable source of energy. So think about, instead of, just imagine that instead of saving between millions of acres of timberland in the west going up in flame, we thin out some of the overgrown forests and we capture the energy and that changes what we use with the fuels in the ground when we do that. It is a great first step. Lets hear from betty from elsworth, kansas, good morning, democrats line. Caller good morning, sorry for my voice. My husband is 75 and he has been a logger for all his life. We have just a little one man saw mill. So were just a small operation. But our passion right now is that our cities, our counties, and our state, when those utilities, when those companies, i mean when their workers cut trees, after a storm, or for whatever reason, they just take those to the landfill. He has asked them, why dont you try to get some use out of that timber, let people come in and cut them for firewood or something, take them to their little sawmill and use it for their woodworking prompt, projects and they say oh, no we cant do that because it would compete with our lumberyards, our businesses, i think if we would do something on a city, county, and state level, it would show a message of conservation, it would show a message of caring for the environment. Thats just our passion right here. It is just a small issue. But we think it could be big if you think of it all over the United States. Glad you brought it up, betty. Thank you. Thank you, betty. And you know, conservation starts with the individual. And what youre talking about is an issue that needs to be addressed, and theres a lot of technology being developed, where people can take municipal solid waste that is often what goes into a landfill, and they can make a bio crude out of that, it can be refined, right along with petroleum, theres other ways that you can use wood residue to generate electricity and heat. And we need more research in those areas. And the really exciting thing and were promoting this in this legislation is more research and development on the biodegradeable plastics, and biochemicals. Theres a world of opportunity out there, to make a lot of the things that we use on a daily basis, and make them a lot more sustainable by using wood as the resource or the input into the process. You mentioned, this is washington, and people are going to, or somebody is going to disagree with you, this is a pushback from the Technology Review from m. I. T. , their headline, a tree and trees is a great idea, it could be a dangerous climate distraction, they write in that piece that yes, trees can and will need to play some role in sequestering carbon already in the atmosphere, at least for a while, but thats all the more reason we cant rely on trees as a standin for the separate Monumental Task cutting emissions from our Energy Transportation and agriculture system. It is hard to read republicans sudden enthusiasm for Tree Planting as anything other than a cynical effort to damping calls and look at regulations to bring about those changes. It is a Great Institution that we have here in the country, i would love to debate whoever wrote that, because i dont think theyre seeing the whole picture. And again, i go back to what you do about the carbon that is already in the atmosphere, show me a technology or a tool that is more efficient or more economical than a tree to pull that carbon out of the atmosphere and store it for long periods of times. But one thing that people are missing, that have made the argument that were not doing anything to reduce emissions, look at the sustainability tax credit that is in the bill. It provides a tax credit, that is based on a score of the sustainability of the building. The inputs of it, how much energy went into manufacturing the product, and transporting it to the job site. Thats going to cut down on carbon emissions. And it looks, it explores it on how much energy does it take to operate and maintain the building. How do you put more efficient appliances in, it more efficient lighting, more efficient heating and cooling, that cuts down emissions of fossil, or carbon, and finally how much carbon is stored in the structure over time . Now, i would love to debate with anybody how that does that reduce the amount of cash than is going in the atmosphere, and we focus a lot on transportation tools. Transportation, all of it combined, planes, trains, automobiles, ships, farm tractors, 27 of the Greenhouse Gas emissions from the u. S. Come from transportation. 50 of it comes from industry and electrical generation. So we always think its easier to see cars moving around and think that is where all of the emissions are coming from, but its not. And this bill directly affects the amount of carbon that is being released into the atmosph