Can tree-planting help? 14 July 04

A correspondent writes from New Zealand, saying that the urgency of the climate problem has now become such that planting trees for ‘carbon neutrality’ may be the best way forward. Here’s the message in full:

Hi Mark,

I have just finished reading your book, and it confirms my suspicion that CO2 and methane levels are already too high for a safe and stable climate. Co2 levels are rising by almost 1% per year, and the current elevated levels will have unexpected consequences for many years.

Anyone who has studied climate change seriously will realise that Co2 levels need to be brought right down below current levels. The Kyoto protocol is not going to do that, nor is all the political wranglings asssociated with it going to help.

Practical people need to just get on and do it. Landcare Research in NZ have set up a web site www.ebex21.co.nz to help businesses to measure, minimise and mitigate their carbon emissions. At the end of the process, the business is carbon neutral which makes them feel good and helps them sell their goods and services in high priced market.

Landcare are doing a survey of the whole Marlborough province to see if we are already carbon neutral. The carbon emissions of the whole province is being measured against the carbon stored by the trees which we have planted, and the native forest which we have restored for biodiversity and tourism. Marlborough is a dynamic privince with booming wine and tourist industries but it looks like the whole province will be carbon neutral. This story impressed the delegates at last months UNFCCC meeting in Bonn.

Climate change is a problem involving huge natural forces. Man’s puny attempts are going to have little effect in solving the problem. What is needed is a natural ally. The biggest natural ally I know of is the sun. The most natural and obvious way for the sun to help us is by photosynthesis, which accounts for 170 billions tonnes of CO2 per year. This is 30 times the 6 billion tonnes released by fossil fuel burning.

Most of the carbon stored by photosynthesis is released again within a year. What the puny humans can do is encourage to store the carbon for longer. I have done my bit by planting half of my farm in trees. The next thing that we can do is use the resulting wood intelligently, in ways that will store the carbon for hundreds of years, as well re minimise the need to burn fossil fuels.

The best example of seeing this put into action is Michael Sykes in North Carolina. A visit to his site www.enertia.com is very refreshing. He can create buildings which would be carbon neutral over periods of at least 100 years.

I have made a study of ways to create carbon neutal buildings from a whole range of organic materials (materials which grow from seeds such as wood, straw, bamboo etc). You can visit my site at www.organicbuilding.com.

I live near Blenheim, New Zealand which is 12,000 miles away from Oxford, England. It does not matter where you live with this climate problem, we will all be affected, and we can all do something.

The melting glaciers scare me, it is happening in NZ also. The resulting reduction in summer low flows will be devastating. The other thing that scares me is the poor buggers in China trying to plant trees to stop the dust storms.

Pass the word on to “Plant trees while you can, before climate change makes tree planting impossible”. The only way to solve this problem is to help nature heal itself.

Regards

Michael Cambridge