The developing nations insist that America make amends for the 315 billion tons of CO2 our nation has pumped into the atmosphere since 1900 when the industrial revolution began full swing. I will make amends right now.
Trees
There are 750 million acres of forest land in the U.S. (down from 1 billion acres 25 or so years ago) which capture 2.3 tons of CO2 absorbed per acre per year equals 2 billion tons per year times 1.5 for all the trees and shrubs outside of the forests equals 3 billion tons captured per year times 110 years equals 330 billion tons of CO2 captured by American forests since 1900. We’re all caught up, thank you very much.
Cap and Trade
The idea is to Cap the total emissions of CO2 by the U.S. at current levels and by means of government controls to reduce emissions by 15% by 2020. Estimates on what this will cost range from $600 billion to $3 trillion over ten years. I will do it right here for $5 billion a year.
The going rate for planting a new tree is $1 per tree. How much CO2 will 1 billion trees absorb (that sounds like a LOT of trees, but Americans already plant 1.5 billion trees a year in reforestation, home improvement, and so forth)???
1 billion equals 5 million acres of trees at 200 trees per acre times 2.3 tons of CO2 absorbed per year equals 11.5 million tons of CO2 absorbed per year.
Now, the U.S. emits about 6 billion tons of CO2 a year minus 3 billion tons absorbed by our forests equals 3 billion tons net times 15% equals half a billion tons of CO2 we need to offset with new trees, 10% of that amount each year for the next ten years equals 50 million tons of CO2 per year.
$5 billion worth of trees planted each year (at $1 per tree) will absorb 57 million tons of CO2.
Trees and More Trees
The nice thing about trees is they do much more than capture carbon. They purify water, they reduce runoff, they replenish aquifers, they make shade that can reduce cooling demands on hvac systems by 30%, and they’re beautiful.
