Click here to view the video on YouTube.

A few weeks later , when I was sailing on the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater , the idea for this song came to life. It was not long after I wrote it, that I realized that this song had a life of it’s own. I started getting requests for the words not only to sing the song, but also to read the words at memorial services.

I found out that many of the schools that I played at in England also wanted to sing it. I was told that after the tsunami disaster , one of the schools that learned my song, sang it on the BBC as they planted a memorial garden to remember all the children who lost their lives . The next year the students took me to see the garden they planted as they sang the song back to me.

Everywhere I went it seemed that someone had a Tree planting story to share. Some of the most moving stories came from my Jewish friends , who told me about how the children in Israel would collect money just to plant trees to make the desert bloom ! I also learned of a special forest of trees that have planted to remember those brave souls who saved Jews during the holocaust .

As I traveled around the world I could see more and more tree plantings . Many times it is after a tragic moment when many innocent lives are lost . It is for all those people, who I have written the last verse;

“As we walk through natures chain, there’s many things we can’t explain, So if I die before my time, remember me , for all human kind .

Plant a tree, Plant a tree, Plant a Tree and think of me I’ll be standing by your side, and we’ll keep reaching for the sky .”

Hopefully we can bring the Green Songbook and GITC's Sing Green workshops there!

Please tell us about your community's farm to school or farm to table programs. Is someone teaching children how to grow their own food in your local schools?

As the author, I have been learning so much in the process of accumulating and learning to sing and play the songs. Some of them give such specific detail about everything from electric cars and wind power to composting and sustainable farming. The lyrics hold a great amount of wisdom. Pete Seeger's "My Rainbow Race" awakens hope to beat back discouragement in the face of great obstacles. We sure are facing those now. John and Johanna Hall's song "Power" deals head on with the terrible danger of nuclear power- something our whole planet is now paying for very dearly but none as dear as our brothers and sisters in Japan. When they wrote "I know lives are at stake, yours and mine and our descendents in time," they knew we were running a terrible risk by relying on nuclear power.

During the writing of this book and recording of the CD, I allowed every single song in the collection to resonate with me and move deeply into my consciousness- all except the funny ones like Dan Crrow's "Zuccini Song" and Tom Chapin's "Good Garbage" which provided awesome comic relief!

Which songs will you love? Which will you share? Which will spur you to action of some kind? Which will you share with children? Tell us about Eco Songs that are special to you on our Blog.

For the last two weeks, the teachers in my GITC training classes have been learning and playing "Electric Car Song." We are just loving it! Nancy Schimmel's lyrics are informative, clever, and positive.

I hope you'll post about your experiences with these songs and others not in the collection because we can all learn from what you write. We are becoming more and more of an eco-community everyday and this blog is intended to help you connect with one another, share valuable ideas and discoveries, and to put you in touch with all the amazing people who helped make The Green Songbook. We'll be hearing from many of them at this website.

Wishing you peace, abundance, and the courage and discipline to act upon your convictions,

Jess