How many years does it take a tree to remove 1 ton of carbon from the air?

Question

I would also like to know how much carbon I put into the air on a flight between x and y. The locations don't matter, but It would be good to have distance for reference. Also, any articles or references you could provide would be great. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Trees act like a carbon warehouse. In the process of photosynthesis, plants remove carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen. A healthy tree uses over 20 lbs. of carbon dioxide each year. The carbon is stored in the tree (wood is about 45 percent carbon) and the oxygen is released back into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas.

A Boeing-747 can burn over 200 tons of fuel in one flight. If you have already clicked your travel route on the world map, the "how much is this" section will calculate the volume of CO2 that will be emitted per passenger.

Answer 2

According to Al Gore's web site it take one tree its whole lifetime to remove 1 ton of carbon from the air. Any commercial airliner would put many tons of carbon into the air during a single flight, but it would of course vary considerable with the size of the airplane and length of the flight. You could calculate it by the weight of fuel burned and the percentage of carbon in the fuel from its chemical formula.

Jet fuel is mostly kerosene, which is a mixture of different chemicals so I can't get an exact percentage of carbon, but it is a mixture of hydrocarbons with roughly the same number of carbon and hydrogen atoms per molecule. Since carbon weights 12 times more than hydrogen, I will assume that jet fuel is 90% carbon by weight. A 747 has a fuel capacity of 180 tons, which would be 162 tons of carbon. Let us assume a 25% reserve for a long flight, such as across the Pacific, then it releases about 120 tons of carbon. If the plane carries 400 people then each person accounts for1/3 of a ton of carbon for the flight.

Answer 3

It depends on the type of tree and where in the world it's planted.

Planting trees in temperate climates has little effect as the amount of carbon dioxide they take in is approximately the same as the amount they release when they die and decay (if the tree is chopped down and the wood used in contruction etc then the carbon isn't released).

Trees planted in tropical regions are much more beneficial and can absorb up to 50kg of carbon dioxide a year once they're established.

If you do a search for 'carbon offsetting' you'll find lots of info. Here's a few to get you started....

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_offset
Carbon Footprint - http://www.carbonfootprint.com/carbon_offset.html
Carbon calculator - http://www.carbonfootprint.com/USA/calculator.html
Flight emissions calculator - http://www.climatecare.org/britishairways/index.cfm

Answer 4

in one day,
one hectare of agroforrestal
that means shade grown coffee,with about 1800 coffee plants and about 200 trees
produce 15 tons of oxigen
the carbon is a smaller part of that
sorry that is about as much as i can answer this question,