What species of tree is best to be used to soak up "greenhouse gasses" and carbon emissions?

Question

If I wanted to plant a tree to soak up the excess carbon emissions from planes and cars etc. what would be the best type to plant? How many trees would I need to plant to soak up the carbon emissions of a flight between London and New York? Thanks!

Answer 1

Planting trees wont lock much carbon in for very long. The carbon released from flying a plane was effectively perminently locked in, deep into the sea bed, and wouldnt have come up for many hundreds of millions of years (if the plate tectonic movement were favourable) To make a real difference you need to stop burning fossil fuels.

To answer your question though, the amount carbon would represent on average 1/10th of a tree, for you to fly across the atlantic in a 747.

Answer 2

Partial solutions only serve to have us "take our eye off the ball," distracting us from the critical need to reduce CO2 emissions. Over half of current CO2 emissions and the vast majority of future CO2 emission growth will come from the 80% of the world's population living in undeveloped nations. Any viable solution must be global in scope. Given what we know today and a little simple math on global emissions growth (especially in developed nations), any discussion with a different scope is inherently disingenuous in nature. That's not to say that reducing other greenhouses is bad, just an observation that the "Let's reduce other greenhouse gasses" part of the proposal is not as much of a driver for the proposal as the second half, "so we can delay taking action on CO2." While developed nations currently have a higher per-capita emission rate, that's due to economic growth and industrial development which occurred before the impact of CO2 was known. It is a grave error to pursue any greenhouse gas reduction strategy which is based on the absurd premise that the average resident of a developed nation, only 20% of the world's population, is somehow solely responsible for historical emissions or for industrial development, infrastructure, land use and zoning decisions determined by their grandparents. On the other hand, now that the impact of development (and distributed, commute-centric land use) on global populations is known, it would be a horrific crime against humanity to allow the continued development of coal-fired power plants and the expansion of oil-based transportation. All new construction of coal-based power plants should be immediately banned, with NATO forces tasked with destroying by 2015 any new power plants which violate the ban. Delaying the discussion of universal, global, actual cost-based approaches (putting a price on carbon) may temproarily delay the day when such steps might be taken, but such a delay only makes the consequences far more severe and more certain, increasing the human suffering to come and increasing the liklihood of far more drastic measures. Since most of the emissions growth in the highest per-capita emissions countries comes from population growth, which is almost entirely due to immigration, banning immigration from developing to developed countries is by far the most effective way to reduce emissions growth in developed nations. Such a move would have the additional positive effect of helping resolve current rampant unemployment issues (20% in the U.S. based on BLS statistic U-6), increasing the capability of the (currently financially bankrupt) developed nations to invest funds and manpower towards any global solution. If we don't stop the rampant bribery and corruption in the United States Congress soon, the financial ability to do anything at all will lie solely with the 1% of the population here that our wealth has been (and continues to be) transferred to.

Answer 3

Trees with plenty of leaf growth and one that would
last hundreds of years,mine ould be the mighty Oak.
The quick fix one`s are not my cuppa tea and the other
two i like are Cherry Blossom tree,lovely flowers in the summer
the other would be the Willow tree always looks lovely.
Don't worry about how many trees you plant just
plant as many as you can.

Answer 4

It is not just trees but all green planet process CO2 and change it to oxygen for us by the process of photosynthesis .That includes even algae. The world has recycled our air for several million years. There has been NO increase of CO2 not even 1 part per million. The plants need CO2 like u do oxygen.

Answer 5

any tree reduces the carbon emissions but , if you want to plant a tree to do that, try to plant a fast growing tree like Betula pendula, Salix babylonica and other. i'm a woodsman and i know what i m talking about
good luck