The other day I did the research and the math to determine how many trees it would take to offset projected carbon emissions for an upcoming road trip.Assumptions
- 5.5 lbs of carbon/gallon of gasoline = 2.5 kg of carbon (kgC)/gallon of gasoline
- my car gets approximately 35 miles/gallon
- Round trip to see mewithoutYou, Thrice, and Brand New in Lowell, Mass: 400 miles
- 6kgC/oak tree in first 25 years of growth
Calculation
400mi*(1gal/36mi)*(2.5kgC/1gal)*(1tree/6kgC)=4.6 trees growing for 25 years
So there it is! We'll need to plant 5 trees in a location where they'll be undisturbed for 25 years. (Though at this time of year, that might be tricky. Maybe I'll wait until the spring.)
1 comment:
It ought to be mentioned that planting trees may not be the best solution. Some reports indicate that trees produce methane as they grow, and apparently tropical plants are better at sequestering CO2, so supporting a third-party reviewed sequestering program may make more sense...
or I could just plant the trees by a swamp, which also produce methane...?
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