Carbon Footprint

Effectiveness of Tree-Planting Offsets Helps Reduce Carbon Footprint

You can’t grow money on trees, but you can make money by allowing trees to grow.

Yes, you heard it right!

Without a doubt, our mother nature has given us many amazing things for the survival of mankind and the tree is one of them.

Trees not only enhance beauty, but they also make people feel serene, peaceful, restful, and tranquil. They significantly support the reduction of workplace stress and tiredness as well as the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere.

Planting trees is a solution.

Massive tree planting is a fantastic way to remove millions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere. However, undetermined offset schemes and poor land management threaten to derail the program. Thus, offsetting carbon emissions can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including natural interventions such as tree planting.

Trees, however have limitations. While there are numerous different forms of rising offsets, many of them are very promising, and it’s still better to keep away from emitting CO2 altogether if possible. The following sections described below will help you understand how reliable tree planting is for carbon offsets and how this form of offsetting compares to different forms of carbon credit score systems.

 What is the size of your carbon footprint?

A carbon footprint is the amount of CO2 that we emit in our daily lives. Whether you live far away from the smokestacks and power establishments that combust petroleum products and power our lives, the more energy you use, the bigger your carbon footprint. Things being what they are, how would you decrease your carbon footprint?

How tree planting can help you reduce your carbon footprint?

Trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and replace it with oxygen, consequently restricting an Earth-wide temperature boost and giving a cleaner, better climate. As indicated by the EPA, the shade given by trees, along with the water fumes they transmit, can reduce top temperatures by up to 11-25°C (20–45°F) compared with unshaded regions.

Nonetheless, when shade is projected on a place of business or home, the inner temperatures can decrease by 13–15°C. According to some estimates, the shade from a single tree can save the same amount of energy as running ten room-sized climate control systems for 20 hours per day!

And a tree’s ability to save energy does not stop in the winter. When trees are planted near buildings, they provide a significant amount of shade, which helps to reduce heating costs and energy consumption, saving a significant amount of money.

Here is a list of the top trees to decrease your carbon footprint.

To offset this, we can plant trees that enshrine and store CO2. Some trees are more efficient than others. Here are some of the best trees widely planted for carbon reduction:

  • Eucalyptus
  • European Beech
  • Red Mulberry
  • Pine trees
  • London Plane
  • Ginkgo Biloba
  • Silver Maple

What is the carbon content of a tree?

Today, carbon is possibly the most important attribute of trees. The tree’s age is determined by the class of species in which it falls. However, the average carbon content present in a tree is approximately 50% of the tree’s total volume. 

 The advantages of trees go beyond carbon offsets.

There are an abundant of benefits to planting trees. We all know that water can be absorbed and retained by plants and thus, it also stops soil erosion. Trees absorb a lot of water when it rains, preventing rainwater from escaping. A full-grown tree can absorb around 1,000 gallons of rainwater per year, which is a great help; otherwise, it would be pumped out and filtered.

  • Trees also provide social and economic benefits, such as job creation and assistance in alleviating poverty and achieving sustainable development, all of which benefit our environment.
  • Trees also have health benefits, such as providing medicine and helping to clean the air.
  • Actively fighting climate change- Plants aggressively observe carbon dioxide from the air and convert it into oxygen, thus fighting climate change. Trees contribute to the quality of the air that humans and animals breathe. These modifications would aid in the effective reduction of carbon emissions.
  • Flood Prevention- Floods and groundwater are major issues in many countries worldwide. Thus, increasing tree planting worldwide will undoubtedly help reduce groundwater and improve soil structure, thereby reducing erosion and property damage caused by flooding.
  • Increase Native Biodiversity- Native trees help to improve local biodiversity by providing a habitat for everything from shrubs and fungi to beetles and animals. Native plants and trees have evolved to be the best ‘host’ plants for other native species because they co-developed. Furthermore, many environmentalists also suggest that buying carbon offsets is another great way to reduce your carbon footprint.

 Conclusion 

Because of the rapid growth of our modern lifestyle, many natural resources have been depleted. Thus current and future generations are paying a high price in terms of money and health. So, the moral of the story is that if you don’t know what the best solution to save yourself from climate change is, the only answer is to plant more trees. For more information on carbon footprint, visit https://climatecarbon.com