Some trees "pollute" more than cars in terms of CO2.?

Question

http://www.news10.net/display_story.aspx?storyid=40823

http://individual.com/story.php?story=80785561

Al Gore will be firing up his ethanol chainsaw after hearing this. CO2 only accounts for 0.3% of the gas in the atmosphere anyway. It couldn't possibly cause widescale global warming at that concentration. Not to mention it's not even a contaminant, it's completely natural, we breath it out for God's sake.

Answer 1

Trees don't emit CO2, or not much anyway.  They emit other compounds that might break down into CO2.  They actually take in CO2, convert it for their needs, and give off oxygen.  They are a balance to animals in that regard.  CO2 is indeed natural and vital to life. It is nearly 0.4 % or 380 parts per million of the atmosphere.  Of that, humans probably haven't added more than 50 parts a million.  That ends up being 0.000050 which isn't enough to alter the temperature significantly IMO.  Its effect should warm the coldest night time and winter temperatures more than the summer temperatures adding moderation to the climate, albeit slightly.

edit: I come back and look a half hour later and find "a" gets two thumbs up and I get two thumbs down.  Pretty funny and somewhat illustrative.

Answer 2

trees take in carbon dioxide we breath out carbon dioxide trees r helpin dont blame our problems on trees.

Answer 3

Ignorance on this level needs to be outlawed. Yes there is very little CO2 in the atmosphere, but that's just exactly it. If there is anymore added to the atmos. more solar rays will be trapped on Earth and heat the planet. Furthermore...and most obviously...trees TAKE IN carbon dioxide and "breath out" oxygen. We in turn take in oxygen and breath out CO2.

Whenever we all live in a Mad Max-esque world were gasoline is currency and the world is covered in deserts we'll have people like this doubter to blame.

Lastly, this is not even a question!

Answer 4

..........ya that's true that ONLY CO2 isn't responsible for glabal warming.Actually global warming is a phenomenon resulting in exessive emitation of Green house gases..........but all count it as a real cause 'coz  (1)it is the fume mostly released during cumbustion of fossil fules.............(2) or people are least aware of global warming....

Answer 5

Yes this is true.  The Blue Ridge Mountains and Smokey Mountains have a continuous haze around them for precisely this reason.

This is a natural occurrence that was known by the Cherokee tribes who settled these regions long before SUV's.

Answer 6

Look, we got rid of paper bags to save the trees.  Now we're supposed to be getting rid of plastic bags to save the environment. What say we get rid of environmentalist and save our self from their non-sense and reduce gas prices at the same time because we'll then be able to develop our own resources and supply our own oil....

Answer 7

actually if you do a little more research, you will find that the VOC's from trees are harmless until they interact with the pollutants from cars and industry (primarily nitrogen oxides) then they turn into ground level ozone(smog) which is then harmful.

Again, plant emissions are harmless in the absence of human-generated nitrogen oxides. In fact, trees and other types of vegetation can even benefit air quality by absorbing ozone and some other types of pollutants, as well as giving off scents that people find pleasing.

So, we are still the problem.

Answer 8

People get thumbs up for letters now?

Answer 9

Your links are not saying CO2, they're saying isoprene and terpenes (BVOCs), which form SOAs, which affect ozone levels.