Do trees make it OK to drive an SUV? - AP

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Do trees make it OK to drive an SUV?

By MICHAEL HILL, Associated Press Writer
Sun May 27, 8:36 PM ET

ALBANY, N.Y. - If you plant some trees, is it OK to drive an Escalade?

The question isn't as silly as it sounds. People worried about global warming
increasingly are trying to "offset" the carbon dioxide — the leading greenhouse
gas — they spew into the atmosphere when they drive, fly or flick on a light.
One idea popular with the eco-conscious is to have trees planted for them.
You get to keep driving and flying, but those trees are supposed to suck in
your trail of carbon.

-snip-

But some researchers say planting trees — while a good thing — is at best a
marginal solution to global warming. Still others decry tree planters who
continue to jet off to Cannes, drive their SUVs or generally fail to reduce
their fuel-hungry lifestyle. To those critics, plantings and other carbon
offsets are like the medieval practice of selling indulgences to wash away
sins: It may feel good, but it doesn't solve much.

"The sale of offset indulgences is a dead-end detour off the path of action
required in the face of climate change," says a report by the Transnational
Institute's Carbon Trade Watch.

-snip-

The science is sound: Trees take in carbon dioxide as part of photosynthesis
and store the carbon. But even conservationists caution it's not as simple
as planting a sapling so you can crank up the air conditioning without guilt.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070528/ap_on_sc/trees_and_people

[glowing]

1. Let's not forget, though, planting trees is a good thing...

Especially when Bush has allowed logging to go on excessively for the last 6 years and the rain forests are still being slashed and burned...

[Lautremont]

2. Why not do the tree thing AND not drive an SUV?

That way you're way ahead.

[Gregorian]

3. You cannot plant enough trees.

And you could not even attempt to keep up with the deforestation alone.

Every day, literally square miles of trees vanish. So who is planting trees? Some people? Well from my experience watching trees disappear to just chainsaws (and not "real" deforestation), you would need a lot more than just a few people planting trees.

Furthermore, it takes decades before trees are fully matured. The first ten years are almost nonexistent.

I don't buy it.


The bottom line is WE ARE LIVING OUTSIDE OF THE ECOLOGICAL EQUILIBRIUM BY VIRTUE OF OUR LIFESTYLES AND OUR NUMBERS IN COMBINATION.

[ben_meyers]

4. Only if you don't hit one!

n/t

[madokie]

5. I must be doing ok since our over an acre yard looks like a forest now considering

when we moved out here in '91 it was all a pasture. In fact Son and I just decided yesterday that the place for the smoker is out under the big assed walnut trees that he and I pushed the walnuts in the ground that are the three trees today.