Here is a '10-penny word' for you. In the abstract, it refers to the act of locking something away and preventing its free circulation. In the context of climate change, it is most frequently used in the phrase 'carbon sequestration'. Carbon sequestration is regarded as one of the most important aspects of our attempt to 'put the genie back in the bottle'. Now that we have discovered and developed all of our high and low-tech ways of burning fossil fuels for their energy content, and in so doing, liberating all of the sequestered carbon that the represent... we find ourselves in serious need of a cost-effective way to get that carbon out of the air.

The search is now under way for such cost-effective, large-scale carbon sequestration techniques and processes. In fact, there is currently a $25 million prize that has been offered by entrepreneur and billionaire, Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Airlines and Virgin Mobile. And the eventual winner of that prize well may be some 14-year-old doing a science project.

But in the meantime, we each can engage in some small-scale but effective carbon sequestration of our own. I'm talking about planting trees. In addition to society's ill-advised plundering of the fossil fuel resource of the planet in the last century, we have devastated the native old-growth forests all over the world. If we are to survive we must begin to put our lives back in balance with the natural world. Planting trees is one of the most accessible ways for you and I to do that. Plant trees for your children to grow with. Plant trees for your grandchildren to swing in and sit under. Plant trees so you will eat of the fruits in due course. Plant trees as though the future depended upon it. It does.

And if you don't own land on which to plant trees, find a friend who owns some. Or plant them in a park or vacant lot near by. Be a modern day Johnnie Apple Seed, but it need not be exclusively apples that you plant.