Confused About Carbon Dioxide??

Question

So if plants absorb carbon dioxide, then why don't people just plant?! This enormous problem with co2 emissions- can't it all be solved by planting a simple tree on Arbor Day? Or is it not that simple?

Can someone educated please explain?

Answer 1

Trees are an extremely important part of most of the ecosystems on land.

Trees hold soil together and limit erosion.

Trees hold moisture that benefits all the living things in the forest or jungle. That includes moisture in the soil and in the trees themselves, both in them and on them. They snag moisture form fog and rain. The Redwoods of California probably couldn't survive without the fog of the coast. And so neither could all the species that depend on the forest for habitat. Trees provide habitat for numerous species of other animals, plants,fungae lichen birds snakes insects monkeys squirrels etc. Untold numbers of species are dependent on their survival for trees, even if they don't live in them

Trees actually help to create local climate.

Trees are very useful to us for medicine, resins, wood, paper etc. Aspirin was discovered in the bark of a tree- slippery elm I think. .

"Spurring concern over Canada's boreal forest is a growing understanding of the critical role the region plays in the life cycles of North American songbirds, including neotropical migrants. Nearly half of the regularly occurring birds on the North American continent use Canada's boreal forest either for breeding or as home habitat. Each spring, according to data compiled by Peter Blanchard when he was working for Bird Studies Canada, a nonprofit conservation group, up to 3 billion songbirds migrate to nest in the boreal. By midsummer, an estimated 5 billion birds start  flying south."

"The Boreal alone comprises one quarter of the world's remaining original forests."

"Since 1975, logging companies have cut down 65 million acres of the Boreal, an area the size of the United Kingdom. This rate is increasing, to the tune of two acres per minute, 24 hours a day."

"Billions of birds, about a third of all of North America's songbirds, migrate to the Boreal to breed in its rich habitat. Over a million fresh water lakes make it a fish and waterfowl haven."

"The Boreal ecosystem supports the largest fresh water system in the world, holding almost a third of the world’s fresh water."

"The Boreal's soils and forests are considered the largest terrestrial carbon storehouse in the world, make it a vital regulator of global climate."

The Boreal Forest of Canada is one of the biggest intact ecosystems on earth, and is being fragmented and deforested, largely to make junk mail, consumer catalogs, toilet paper, paper towels etc., for the American consumer. We really need to start making paper from hemp which is much more sustainable.

The quickest way to destroy an ecosystem like this is to fragment it, which what is happening.

Not all the damage is from logging.

http://www.forestethics.org/article.php?...

Boreal Forest of Canada

Answer 2

they can but it only works to a point. plants take in CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) to make a shuger called glucose. when the plants use glucose to make energy they release the CO2 back into the atmosphere. so planting plants will only help if you plant more each year also making sure that any plants that die are replaced with new ones.

this is just too hard on a large scale and will result in land shortages.

Answer 3

Plants are trying very hard to keep up with us, but they just can't do it.

Look at this graph.

http://gaw.kishou.go.jp/cgi-bin/wdcgg/qu...

The little squiggles are nature doing its' thing. CO2 falls a bit during summer when plants are active, and rises during the winter. The huge increase is us, burning fossil fuels. The scientists can actually show that the increased CO2 in the air comes from burning fossil fuels by using "isotopic ratios" to identify that CO2.  The natural carbon cycle buried carbon in fossil fuels over a very long time, little bit by little bit. We dig them up and burn them, real fast.  That's a problem.

Man is upsetting the balance of nature.  We need to fix that.  Planting more trees (particularly in the tropics, where they grow fast) can help, but they can't solve the problem.

Answer 4

The problem is that plants are just carbon dioxide sinks, they only hold carbon dioxide temporarily.  When they die, the carbon dioxide goes right back into the atmosphere.  

But planting trees is a good thing still, however, trees and rainforests are being clearcut because logging companies want to make fast money.  More trees do need to be planted, but we still need to reduce CO2 emissions.

Answer 5

Planting trees is the worst thing you can do to stop global warming.  Atmospheric CO2 has no significant heat retention at all.  Atmospheric water is responsible for almost all the greenhouse effect of the atmosphere.  If you plant more trees, you'll add to atmospheric humidity.  Everyone knows that deserts are very cold at night due to the lack of water in the air, as compared to a forest or jungle. If we cut down all the trees and forests, then the Earth will lose heat much faster.

Answer 6

This is a very good question.  The answer lies in land use.  You might be surprised to know that land (especially fertile land) is one of the world's scarcest commodities.  In there effort to live a normal life, people all around the world cut down forests to make room for themselves.  Overall, this has lead to the destruction of forests and other natural vegetation.  

So the main issue with your solution is that a lot of people will  need to give up land.  Our job now is to figure out ethical ways to accomplish this and use land and other resources more efficiently.  Great question!

Answer 7

NO!!!!,LOL

Answer 8

Yes trees and plants do take in co2 and store it in the plant it self.  think of fossil fuels as million year old plants that over time turned into oil, coal & methane. It takes alot of trees to remove millions of years worth of stored carbon that are currently being reliesed. Now think of how fast the rain forrests are dissapering.

So you have all those million year old trees releiseing there stored carbon, and fewer trees to absorb the released co2.

Yes, plantng trees will help but it is not a solution.

Hope this helps

Answer 9

If every plant could find all the water it needs around its roots, and al the plant nutrients it needs, and in addition has air around its roots to keep it healthy then the pants of the earth could consume all the CO2 being produced, provided they can reach up that high.

As some plants are in temperature above about 90F, they shut down their photosynthetic process,  but almost always that is less important than drought stress or want of nutrients.

Merely planting more plants when those already there are using up all the available water and nutrients can actually reduce the amount of CO2 taken up.

This is a big part of the importance of building water storage reservoirs so that we can irrigate to make our plants effective in absorbing CO2.

Trees under water stress stop consuming CO2.