I think the whole debate about trees and CO2 may be becoming clouded
by a) the daft, indeed amoral, statemants by the World Bank about
the Less Developed Countries being "under polluted!" and by images of
economic colonialism, with Western Corporations taking over large
areas of LDC's territory to plant trees so the West can continue to
spew out CO2.
In Iran last year I saw large areas just east of Tehran, for example,
being afforested. These were formerly arid semi desert areas. The aim
was not CO2 absorbtion but to reverse desertification - tree planting
in formerly tree - less areas can actually create its own
microclimate that is more favourable for continued tree growth. There
was alos a recreational bonus. Iran being Iran, I suspect that no
Western corporation was involved; this was purely an Iranian Govt
exercise. As Iran suffers from relatively high unemployment, and also
from rural depopulation as citizens crowd into already burgeoning
cities (the Iranian Govt is trying to reverse the abandonment of
villages and the explosive growth of Tehran) rural forestry could be
beneficial for both these problems too. Now if I was the Iranian
finance minister i would be thinking I was doing the world a favour
here, by the by, and could gain credit for this.
At a rough "guesstimate" the trees I saw contained some 2 cubic
metres of timber, and were some 5 metres apart; one tree per 25
square metres. As a very rough calculation I guess each 2 cu metre
tree contains some 1000 kg of CO2; at densities of 1 tree per 25
sq. metres some 1.5 million sq kilometres of trees would be needed,
extra to what there are now, to reduce atmospheric CO2 by 10%. That
is rather impractical as it represents an area some half the size of
India. When these Iranian forests mature, they will no longer be net
absorbers of CO2. Unless of course they were harvested in a
controlled way and sequestered underground...if their CO2 did in fact
remain buried. There are plenty of areas of the world where
desertification threatens and could be halted by tree
growth...........If the country concerned retains control there are
at least the following benefits;
1) Halting desertification
2) A transfer of funds from 1st to 3rd world
3) More employment in LDC's
4) This employment to be rural based
5) Recreational/environmental benefits for LDC's
6) Slowing or even halting the Greenhouse effect
......well its better than sending kids up chimneys anyway!
Hillary Shaw
P/G Geography, Leeds University
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