Carbon Neutral

I'm no scientist, but I have some severe doubts about the science behind this movement; planting trees to compensate for our carbon dioxide output. Basically, the idea is that we can't get rid of producing carbon dioxide, but trees can. So, in order to compensate for our output, we plant trees which can clean up that CO2.

Here's my problem with this. I did a calculation for how many trees I'd need to plant in order to remove the CO2 produced on a flight from Grand Rapids, MI to Baltimore. The site says I'd need to plany one tree (at a cost of $11 and change, which they can conveiniently collect right now since I asked). I'm pretty sure a tree isn't going to clean up the 600+ pounds of CO2 produced by that flight in, say, the same time it took to produce that CO2. So really, to have a zero sum, I'd need to plant something on the lines of acres of trees.

Michigan State University's Center for Integrative Toxicology, says this:

It is estimated that an acre of trees uses four and a half tons of CO2 a year

Doing some real quick math, that's about 25 pounds a day per acre.

Something smells funny...

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