Carbon-neutral Camelot?
Here's a cool angle that occurred to me last night. I wondered about the potential of our huge conservation land to make us "carbon-neutral". Now I am trying to find data to calculate that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_offset mentions a figure from a UN study: "...900 trees, enough to annually remove as much carbon dioxide as is annually generated by the fossil-fuel usage of an average United States resident".
Here's the numbers worked out it details:
http://fguardians.org/support_docs/document_carbon-calculation-methodology_2-07.pdf
Apparently mature trees do not sequester carbon. To really take carbon out of the atmosphere, you need growing trees. And secondly, you need a LOT of acreage of growing trees to offset typical carbon emissions! (And of course thirdly, Forest Guardians sounds like a great program to support!)
Here's the numbers worked out it details:
http://fguardians.org/support_docs/document_carbon-calculation-methodology_2-07.pdf
Apparently mature trees do not sequester carbon. To really take carbon out of the atmosphere, you need growing trees. And secondly, you need a LOT of acreage of growing trees to offset typical carbon emissions! (And of course thirdly, Forest Guardians sounds like a great program to support!)
Comments
Just Kidding! Just Kidding!
I know you are kidding, but those are not the only choices. Perhaps there is significant value to be added by selectively cutting down old & decrepit trees that will make room for new ones. I believe this is done in most managed forests.
- manoj
Brokk...
Thanks for the comment. I am pretty sure the whole discipline of forest management tackles the very question you are raising. There are multiple factors at play here, such as wood yield, size of board and rate of carbon-trapping. You can probably work your forest to maximize the factor you want.
- manoj