How many trees would it take to remove all carbon from the atmosphere?
Jyothi Kiran, Thursday, March 26, 2009 | Category: Environment
Jessie Paul, CMO of Wipro came up with a brilliant idea of dimming the corporate websites for an hour on Saturday in support of the climate change program ‘Earth Hour” started by WWF.
And, here’s my 3 bits of solidarity in saving the planet from Global warming. On Saturday I am not taking a shower(conserving water), if I feel thirsty will reach out for beer instead of water, will save on fuel and take a bicycle, or walk to commute, better still, will stay home daydreaming of a holiday in the Arctic with polar bears in the background!!!! Yes, I have heard that the bears are going to be extinct and the WWF is doing everything to prevent that.
But then, there are also those who believe that the polar bears will be just fine. Like the brilliant scientist out there who knows exactly how many trees it would take to remove all carbon from the atmosphere.
An eminent physicst, Freeman Dyson disagrees on the global warming consensus and suggests that, far from expecting any drastic harmful consequences from these increased temperatures, he says the carbon may well be salubrious — a sign that “the climate is actually improving rather than getting worse,” because carbon acts as an ideal fertilizer promoting forest growth and crop yields. “Most of the evolution of life occurred on a planet substantially warmer than it is now,” he contends, “and substantially richer in carbon dioxide.”
As the debate heats up between the skeptics and the supporters of Global warming, what it all boils down to, as the New York Times says, “is a deeper disagreement about values” between those who think “nature knows best” and that “any gross human disruption of the natural environment is evil,” and “humanists,” like himself, who contend that protecting the existing biosphere is not as important as fighting more repugnant evils like war, poverty and unemployment.
And if you still want to know how many trees it would take to remove all the carbon, visit the NYT article on Dyson
Tags: , Earth Hour, Freeman Dyson, Global Warming
13 Responses to “How many trees would it take to remove all carbon from the atmosphere?”
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Muki Says:
March 26th, 2009 at 8:24 amYour 3 bits of solidarity reminds me of an old Tamil movie where the actor SURULIRAJAN is a big miser. One day a swamji comes to his town wanting to see how big a miser is Suruli. They both get in to a competition. After few hours Suruli comes out and all the villagers are asking him what happened and who won. Suruli says ofcourse i am the winner. Then he goes on explaining what happened inside the house…I went inside and sat down and started talking to Swamji and the swamji told me we are only talking “Why do we need the light ON”, then the conversation got over and the swamji went to switch on the light and i said “Anyway there was no light so i have removed my pants so that it doesn’t get dirty and i can wear it for an other day”.
Every american trashes 4 times more garbage compared to a single person in the developing nations. In India we have great acceptance of REUSE than just recycle. I rarely see office buildings lights are ON in the night. Indians have tendency not to waste resources. But i agree with more options and things available in abundance people are wasting more resources. I see many corporates in India wasting so much paper for no reason at all. In my GYM there is a guy who takes 20 min shower and i complained to the gym folks and this customer says i am paying Rs.20,000 for the whole year and i have all the right to use the shower.
I am happy for the recession in a way the POWER above us has turned OFF the lights so that we could turn ON our common sense and conserve what we have and not to be GREEDY for more.
Happy earth hour…
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yogi Says:
March 26th, 2009 at 8:45 amit’s not just some of the scientists but some main stream media that is picking up on there’s-no-such-thing-as-global-warming crap..maybe there is or maybe there isn’t but what perplexes me the most is the message they seem to be sending out..that there is no crisis and you can continue to do what you were doing(destroy nature), lest their already dead capitalist economy fall if people start cutting down on things. they want to blissfully live in denial. shame on them!
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Mamta Says:
March 26th, 2009 at 8:56 amI agree with Joe…We should have beer but not chilled as we will switch off our fridge also.
I think its just about having some basic sense and a daily habit which can save lot of resource.
Its like PCRA ad…which says “PDHIT PATI GARA PATRAA”
MERI BIWI MUJHE DHAKKAN BULATI….BUT THEN THATS GOOD…DHAKKAN SAVE 20% OF YOUR LPG.so make good habit…Switch off your monitor when you are out for lunch or meeting.Not only near environment day….make it a daily habit….
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Sutapa Says:
March 26th, 2009 at 9:14 amAlso please keep the lights switched off in your offices too.I really don’t understand why we need the lights when everyone is using Computers for work.
This can save lots of energy. -
Geek Says:
March 26th, 2009 at 9:21 amSo you are asking us to switch off the lights and work on the computer….huhhhh That can switch your eyes OFF permanently. BTW why to use computers…
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Geek Says:
March 26th, 2009 at 9:32 amwhy you are all talking so much about this take a look at the gas guzzlers in US, they are creating the biggest ozone hole. now after recession everyone is using bicycles in america. any idea where this is going to go.
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Srini Says:
March 26th, 2009 at 9:43 amI think Jessie’s idea is nice. But why few hours, with websites you can do it for the whole day so that the message reaches more people.
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Jyothi Kiran Says:
March 26th, 2009 at 9:48 amHey, I saw this cool Earth Hour widget that dims websites at http://www.laurenceborel.com/2009/03/26/earth-hour/
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Arun Says:
March 26th, 2009 at 9:53 amThe earth has been around for 4.6 billion years. It has made it past storms, floods, earthquakes, droughts, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, tectonic movement, even meteorites and locust…nothing we do can match the tremendous forces the earth has had to endure in the past. We have been around for what…100,000 years? Of which we have been actively murdering earth for the last 200? It’s less than the blink of the eye in terms of total Earth years. I am certain Earth will get rid of us pretty soon. We will go away and the Earth will continue. No one needs to save the Earth. It will look after itself. The real thing to focus on is not to save the earth, but to save ourselves. Do watch
http://www.michaelcrichton.net/video-georgecarlin.html when you have some time for the funniest take on the “Save the Earth” sentiment. I’m off to have the beer as suggested by you, to save on water! -
Osiris Says:
March 26th, 2009 at 10:45 amTo save our planet I decided to work from home. So, I do not have to drive my SUV which guzzles a gallon of gas for every 10 miles. Since I work from home and hardly go out, I stopped taking bath everyday to conserve water. I do not use shaving and grooming products any more just to keep the chemicals out of the drain.
By going green, I don’t “smell good” these days and so my wife stopped coming near me. That works for me too because I don’t have to pamper her, which saves lot of real GREEN $ which is very important during this tough economy times.
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Jyothi Kiran Says:
March 28th, 2009 at 6:21 amThanks guys for all your green thoughts, the George Carlin’s video suggested by Arun was simply amazing, I watched quite a few of Carlin on utube this Saturday), thanks Yogi for stopping by, and the last post by Osiris had me falling off my chair!
May the Green be with You! -
Vishy Says:
April 2nd, 2009 at 4:29 amWell! All well said
Respect Trees and Grow Trees ! Green Remedy for Global Warming
Some time back near to my home (@ Kompally, Hyderabad), I came across a unique Ashram (No Gyan about ashram
Just sharing great experience), where visitors and devotees work-ship trees. This Ashram has millions of species of tress… What I liked is … Respect for Trees… Care of Trees… Spiritual and Medicinal story behind each and every tree… I understand TREES are VVIP and all of us must respect TREES as VVIP… this Ashram helps in building such respect and care of Trees.
(More about the Ashram - Sai Geetha Ashram is set in a sprawling area of bountiful land, home to over a hundred species of rare plants and trees. These have been carefully sourced from different parts of India and countries abroad. This life-giving piece of earth has “Dhanwantari Trees” – those that impart health, “Divine Trees” that ensure prosperity in life and “Nakshtra Vrikshas” (Birth star trees) those that fulfill our sincere and legitimate desires. Circumambulating all these trees bestows the desired result. Ensconced among these trees are sacred idols of Ganesha, Hanuman and Garuda which occupy pride of place and fulfill our honest wishes. These hallowed abodes are entitled “Abhaya Murthula Kshetra”, “Garuda Kshetra”, “Draupadi Kshetra” and the holy shrine of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba. ) -
Jyothi Kiran Says:
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:53 amThanks Vishy for the green post. Nature worship has existed in almost all civilizations. The Incas, Mayas and the native Americans worshiped nature as god. In India we have a tradition of worshiping trees as vana devathas symbolizing Mother Nature.
There are many slokas/hymns that refer to trees as gods. They are mentioned in the Gita and in Vishnu Sahasranama. It is believed that gods in the form of trees are responsible for giving us the sun, rain and wind.
Without trees the whole earth would be barren. Even the air we breathe is a gift form the vana devathas. Therefore the thought, “Vruksho Rakshitha”, which means protect trees and they will in turn protect you.
In the USA, there was the trend of Transcendentalism advocated by writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman. But nature worship was taken literally as pantheism (that god is alive in animate and inanimate objects, which was against the Christian tradition, so it became unpopular and faded with time.
The way I see it, Green thinking is the same old wine of nature worship packaged in new avatar titled Save Our Planet. Earlier godmen/priests made money inducing fear of plague and poverty, today the PR agencies world wide are making money in the name of global warming.
Tomorrow it will be called something else like maybe, ‘Plant/post something or be socially ostracized’.
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