Trees – Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
‘Reduce your carbon footprint’. We hear this constantly from scientists, environmental activists and regular people. It’s been the topic of various government policies and world wide concern but what is it and how do we factor into the problem and more importantly the solution?
Definitions: I’m sure the ‘reduce your carbon footprint’ is not a new concept to anyone but just to recap:
Carbon Footprint: is a measure of the impact our activities have on the environment as it pertains to climate change.
Reduce your carbon footprint: simply means to take measures to lessen your impact on the environment.
Why Trees?
All plants, through the process of photosynthesis absorb and store carbon dioxide (CO2). Trees are especially good at this because of their size and longevity. Their size allows them to absorb more CO2 and their longevity means they are working for a long time. By pulling this CO2 out of the air trees are preventing it from reaching the high atmosphere where it collects and becomes a factor in global warming.
Different types of trees will absorb different amounts of CO2. The age of the tree, because that is directly related to the size of the tree, will also affect the amount of CO2 it is able to absorb. For example, according to one web site I visited it suggested that one 25 year old maple tree absorbs 2.52 pounds of CO2 per year while one 25 year old pine tree absorbs 15 pounds of CO2 per year. It also suggests that a 50 year old tree will absorb more CO2 than a younger tree.
What Should You Do?
The first thing you need to do is realize that planting a tree is not the cure to global warming. It is simply a way to offset our impact on the environment. We still need to reduce our carbon footprint by following a ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ program. Planting a tree is simply one way to give back to the environment.
One article I read suggested you should plant one tree for every 2000 miles you travel to help offset the emissions produced from traveling. For the average person that would be about 10 trees per year. Wow! Don’t panic just yet. Nothing says you have to plant them in your back yard.
Where To Get Help
If planting and caring for trees seems overwhelming you can get help. There are several sites on the internet where you send them money and they will plant a tree for you as part of some program. You could approach your local ‘parks’ department for your city or town and see if they have a tree planting program that you could participate in.
Another option would be to approach a farmer. Farmers, generally, are wonderful stewards of the land and every farm has some land that can’t be farmed (a fence line, low land, watershed, etc.) Get to know a local farmer and chances are he will let you plant and maintain some trees on his land.
If you still can’t find someone to plant and maintain a tree for you then feel free to join our ‘plant a tree’ program.
We need to do our part – so lets get involved.