The LT threads on climate change sent me down the internet rabbit hole -- reading to understand to what degree trees make a difference. I didn't expect to learn that a single tree is such a significant absorber of carbon dioxide (CO2) but it is.
Below are some "putting it in context" notes I took as I did my geek reading. *CO2* A typical passenger car produces about 400 grams of CO2 per mile. For a* 40 mile round-trip* commute, that's 16 kg (35 lbs). Wow, that's a lot. A full grown tree absorbs about 21 kg (46 lbs) of CO2 That *one tree offsets 1.3 daily car commutes* Just being curious: An adult male exhales about 1 kg (2.2 lbs) of CO2 per day. That same tree offsets about 21 men exhaling. Better to stop driving gas-fueled cars than to stop breathing. *Methane* If you are thinking about global warming. *methane is far more potent* than CO2 in the near term. Over 10 years, that same weight of methane will trap about 85 times more heat than CO2 will. (Because methane has a much shorter lifespan that CO2, if you look at the global warming problem over 100 years, then CO2 is the greater concern, but we cannot afford to wait that long) About 60% of methane emissions are due to human activity, with agriculture, fossil fuel handling and landfills being the most egregious sources. Recent research shows that microbes on the bark of trees absorb some methane, but I cannot tell if it is significant around here. More so in the tropics. Examples of what people can do to control methane emissions: o Less meat / more plant based food production o Leak management for oil and gas. o Stop venting/flaring gas o Landfill methane gas collection Locally, *in Lincoln, we should revisit the gas leaks* around town and make sure they are all fixed.
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