At the national, let alone global scale, trees alone do not provide the carbon sink we need to offset our woefully unbalanced power consumption. They are vital, yes, and planting them is still good, but trees will not offset our coal power plant use, let alone petroleum use.
From: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007286.html
"Home Depot is funding the planting of 300,000 trees in cities across the US to help absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions... The CO2 emissions from only one medium-sized (500 MW) coal-fired power plant, in just 10 days of operation, will negate this entire effort." [for the entire life of the tree].
Slashdot Mirror
At the national, let alone global scale, trees alone do not provide the carbon sink we need to offset our woefully unbalanced power consumption. They are vital, yes, and planting them is still good, but trees will not offset our coal power plant use, let alone petroleum use. From: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007286.html "Home Depot is funding the planting of 300,000 trees in cities across the US to help absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions... The CO2 emissions from only one medium-sized (500 MW) coal-fired power plant, in just 10 days of operation, will negate this entire effort." [for the entire life of the tree].