Are trees carbon neutral - more trees will not reduce global warming?

Question

A previous question on planting trees to offset my carbon useage has thrown up the issue that trees themselves are carbon neutral, ie they absorb the same amount as they produce, therefore planting more would have little effect. Is this true?

Answer 1

No it is not true.

Plants are mostly made from Carbon. Very few minerals from the soil get used. So a fully grown tree has been built with a lot of Carbon that has been taken out of the air. So a tree takes carbon out of the air to build itself and emits oxygen. Then when the tree dies it's remains become soil and then maybe eventually oil. The oil that we use was once all prehistoric plants. These plants were built with carbon taken out of the air in prehistoric times. Now we are putting all that carbon back into the air and that is why we are getting global warming. The earth used to be a much hotter place.

Answer 2

I think you have been slightly misinformed. An individual tree is not carbon neutral while it is alive - it absorbs carbon from the environment, which of course eventually is returned to the environment (generally the soil if the tree dies naturally, or the atmosphere if the tree burns). If we plant more new trees we will increase the rate at which carbon is absorbed from the environment. If we cut down existing trees we will increase the rate at which carbon is returned to the environment.

Young trees absorb carbon faster than old trees, so for example a managed forest which is used to make paper which is then put in a landfill site after use will extract carbon from the atmosphere and deposit it in the soil.

Answer 3

Not quite. A tree will absorb carbon while it is growing, because cellulose is basically of generic formula CH2O. [Photosynthesis: CO2 + H2O -> CH2O + O2.) Eventually the tree will die, fall, and rot, and its carbon will be returned to the environment. If there is a forest fire, much of the carbon will be released by the fire. A mature forest is carbon neutral: as trees grow and die, and are replaced by other trees, there is little net change in CO2, except that if the depth of soil grows, there will be carbon in the soil.

Answer 4

like all living things trees absorb oxygen and put out carbon dioxide. however when exposed to sunlight plants can also absorb carbon dioxide and convert it to oxyen, fixing the carbon in the plants vegitation. The amount of carbon dioxide fixed in this way vastly exsceeds the amount of carbon dioxide respired.

So planting a tree may do something to reduce the impact of your carbon emissions, however to take it seriously you need to pkant a heck of a lot of trees. A far 'smarter' approach to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gasses) you are responsible for emitting.

Answer 5

Planting more would take more out of the atmosphere hence reducing Global Warming. The carbon would be locked until the tree died and rotted or was burned.

Answer 6

in theory u would think more trees would help because they need carbon like we need oxygen. Watch out witht he media and the global warming issues. In 1933 we had a huge heat wave like the one we recently had and we didnt have nearly as much burning of fossil fuels then as we do now. I heard on the rush limbaugh show one day about a volcanoe erupting polutes the air just like humans do, so go figure if earth itself messes its own air up then there has to be a way the earth can fix itself

Answer 7

Absolutely not. We can never plant trees as fast as we are destroying the world's most beautiful and fragile forests. Please, plant as many trees as you want. But do care for them.
If you can try visiting a country with Cloud Forests, you will get in love with life and trees. Some nice places with these forests are in Panama, Costa Rica, and in Puerto Rico.

Answer 8

Yep...Trees like "London plan" love carbon , That's why its the main tree in London streets