Jump to content

Welcome to Geeks to Go - Register now for FREE

Need help with your computer or device? Want to learn new tech skills? You're in the right place!
Geeks to Go is a friendly community of tech experts who can solve any problem you have. Just create a free account and post your question. Our volunteers will reply quickly and guide you through the steps. Don't let tech troubles stop you. Join Geeks to Go now and get the support you need!

How it Works Create Account
Photo

Planting trees will not save the planet: official


  • Please log in to reply

#1
Retired Tech

Retired Tech

    Retired Staff

  • Retired Staff
  • 20,563 posts
The decade-long Free Air Carbon Enrichment (FACE) experiment, set up to test the viability of proposals to "bank" humanity's carbon emissions by growing forests, revealed that to make an impact on the amount of CO2 we are pumping out, we'd need to feed the growing trees so much extra water and fertiliser that the societal impact would be unacceptable.

Scientists working on FACE bathed four plots of trees in levels of carbon dioxide one and a half times those present in today's atmosphere. Another four plots received no extra CO2. On average, the trees with the extra carbon produced 20 per cent more biomass, but the figures varied substantially, from 5 per cent to 40 per cent, depending on the amount of nutrients and water available.

http://uk.news.yahoo...-d1d76f9_1.html
  • 0

Advertisements


#2
Troy

Troy

    Tech Staff

  • Technician
  • 8,841 posts
I believe it, too. This planet is going downhill too quick to stop in a hurry!
  • 0

#3
MoNsTeReNeRgY22

MoNsTeReNeRgY22

    Member 2k

  • Member
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 2,539 posts
Wow, and my teachers always told me to plant trees...
  • 0

#4
ScHwErV

ScHwErV

    Member 5k

  • Retired Staff
  • 21,285 posts
  • MVP
This doesn't mean you shouldn't plant trees. They do help.

However this does mean that simply planting forests is not a "magic pill" to fix our CO2 issues. Other things have to be found to work in combination to fix what we have started.
  • 0

#5
dsenette

dsenette

    Je suis Napoléon!

  • Community Leader
  • 26,047 posts
  • MVP
Proof that global warming is real (sorry...needed to lighten the mood i guess)

planting trees is deffinitely a good idea...they make oxygen, scrub the co2 out....AND give your kids something to climb
  • 0

#6
MoNsTeReNeRgY22

MoNsTeReNeRgY22

    Member 2k

  • Member
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 2,539 posts
lol, thanks for the enlightenemnt. I will continue then with the gardenning in my back yard.
  • 0

#7
Troy

Troy

    Tech Staff

  • Technician
  • 8,841 posts

This doesn't mean you shouldn't plant trees. They do help.

However this does mean that simply planting forests is not a "magic pill" to fix our CO2 issues. Other things have to be found to work in combination to fix what we have started.

Yeah absolutely, it's gotta be the combination thingo, trees are awesome, I love them and animals need them. Recently I bought a push-bike so I could ride to work instead of drive my car every day (it's only a ten-minute ride anyway, so it's almost the same time cause I don't get stuck at all the traffic lights!), not only am I saving money but I'm also helping the environment. Just a little bit I can do to help out. One less car on the road = better.

And dsenette, that's an awesome clip :whistling:
  • 0

#8
geerhed

geerhed

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 28 posts
Posted Image
  • 0

#9
Retired Tech

Retired Tech

    Retired Staff

  • Topic Starter
  • Retired Staff
  • 20,563 posts
Researchers bathed plots of pine trees in extra carbon dioxide every day for 10 years and found that while the trees grew more tissue, only those that received the most water and nutrients stored enough carbon dioxide to offset the effects of global warming.

Ram Oren, the ecologist who led the project, said the research suggested that planting more trees would not be successful in slowing the pace of climate change. "More trees don't necessarily mean less carbon dioxide," he said. "Planting trees is not going to do a whole lot to decreasing carbon concentration.

"What we're finding is that extra carbon very quickly goes back into the atmosphere if there are low nutrients and water available.

"And we are not going to be able to increase the capacity of forests to hold carbon, because we couldn't fertilise such large areas or provide sufficient water. It would cause such pollution that the consequence would be much worse than carbon dioxide enrichment in the atmosphere."

But Ru Hartwell, the director of Treeflights, an offsetting company planting trees in Wales and Peru, said: "There are problems with tree planting but it is only one way in which we are going to get on top of the problems of global warming. I have complete faith that tree planting is positive and we should not just chuck away our spades and do nothing."

http://www.telegraph.../ncarbon119.xml
  • 0






Similar Topics

0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users

As Featured On:

Microsoft Yahoo BBC MSN PC Magazine Washington Post HP