Quote:
|
If every one of us could plant enough trees to increase our tree population and open space by 10% we could reverse the trend of global warming. Is the answer really this simple?
|
Tree planting provides a Carbon sink...where C is held
temporarily in plant tissue....sometimes its for a long period...but sometimes not...
Tree-planting is NOT a permanent solution to back-tracking the huge amounts of generated CO2 by the activities man (mainly in the last 250 years). Humans have managed to convert previously sequestered forms of C (like coal and oil) to CO2 ..... almost to the level of exhaustion of these reserves.
In addition, there has been activity which has released the temporary stores of C ...from trees, vegetation .... all involving aerobic combustion of carbon ( burning). Natural events like bushfires also allow huge release of temporary C stores.
I would agree trees have huge aesthetic benefit, and micro-climatic cooling effect ... but the worlds problem is too big NOW for tree planting to be any sort of answer. At best, it is only a temporary appeasment.
Part of the solution lies in removing Carbon from the Carbon cycle and returning to the earth ....sequestered. Hence the post on Agrichar.....( as food for a new way of thinking).
Man has changed this planet to such a degree that natural systems are permanently altered.....vegetation successions are occurring....species are moving out of their normal ecological niches and taking up occupation in altered environments ... (Pittosporum undulatum as one example) .... and species are being totally lost from our planet....not only plants but the habitat that it provides for animals too.
That's the way it is ... and as portended in "The Future Eaters" by Tim Flannery back in 1994.
This year, 2008 is International Year of Planet Earth.....