I ask because I never see this mentioned anywhere, it's always about cars and coal and even cows, which seems silly to me. So, my question is about trees, if Global Warming is caused by CO2 isn't this directly related to the fact that we as people have spent the vast majority of the last 100 years chopping down every single tree in our path, every subdivision I see built today there are no trees, every week a new shopping center goes up where a wooded lot used to sit even though there are half a dozen empty ones around town. Without those trees the CO2 levels rise and in turn we get the symptoms of Global Warming. So in theory could we not slow down this phenomenon by keeping large swaths of land covered in trees, slowing down deforestation and working on ways to get and grow trees in urban settings? Or am I way off base and talking out of my backside with my limited high school knowledge? Of course I'm not so deluded as to believe we have enough land to plant enough trees.
Trees are absolutely nothing compared to the algae in the oceans. Secondly, the small plants are just as important as trees. http://www.ecology.com/2011/09/12/important-organism/ Also, there isn't much that chopping down forests does in terms of global warming. We wouldn't have an issue if it weren't for the whole burning oil thing.
I really liked that article thanks for that. The problem with oil burning is what can take it's place? I really like the idea of electric cars, but their range is low and the charging stations take longer than a lot of people like, not to mention they are few and far between, then you have their pricing and people's minds about cost. Also, In terms of energy people are hesitant to support nuclear and I've heard that turbines and solar panels aren't all they're cracked up to be but have no evidence to that.
Gas cars have existed for ages. Electric cars, as a viable means of transport, are just now becoming viable. Give it a while and we will be done with gas. First we need green power, then we will worry about finding electric cars and/or the tech will exist by that point. Solar and turbines also really need storage to work well. People will stop being scared of nuke power if there is constant presence of true information.
Greenpeace’s tigers are a kind of decoy, a sleek feline metaphor pressed into service on behalf of the broader existential threat that we all face because of the warming of the atmosphere. It turns out that the results of Indonesian deforestation go far beyond decimating tiger habitats. The critical issue is not even the jungle itself exactly, but the swampy peatlands from which it rises — massive watery bogs up to 50 feet deep containing layer upon layer of fallen vegetal debris. This peat acts as an immense living storage locker for carbon dioxide, and as the peatlands are drained, the plant matter decomposes, releasing greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere at a truly frightening rate. By one estimate, the amount of carbon given off because of deforestation in Indonesia accounts for a whopping 4% of global carbon emissions — from just .1% of the earth’s land surface. http://www.businessinsider.com/greenpeace-fortune-500-deforestation-global-warming-2014-6?op=1But truth be told, the animals are really beside the point.
It's getting a bit late, I can reply tomorrow in greater detail if you want, unless someone else comes up with a detailed answer before that. But the the general gist is that the carbon cycle of plants is.. well.. a cycle. Most of the CO2 that is removed from the atmosphere by photosynthesis of plants is eventually returned to the atmosphere. As plants die the organic matter they produced will decompose - aerobic decomposing/digestion produces CO2 and anaerobic produces mainly methane. And methane eventually reacts with oxygen to form CO2 and water. Some amount of carbon gets deposited in the soil permanently (eventually forming things like coal and oil), but that's a relatively minor part of the carbon cycle on land. However by increasing the total amount of living plant biomass you do decrease the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Then all we gotta do is take all those plants and shove them deep underground so that the carbon is removed from the active cycle.. reverse mining, heh.
That's a good point I hadn't really thought about plants decaying and releasing it back out, and really never think about methane. I guess the reverse mining would give us a reason to use all those old abandoned and boarded up mines in the South Eastern US.
It gives a nice contrast thinking the world is currently consuming 20 million metric tons of coal (source) and 0.0139 km^3 of crude oil every day (87 356 000 barrels per day, source). That's 5500 olympic sized swimming pools of crude oil every day.. I'm not sure what is the mean density of coal but guessing 800 kg/m^3 that's 25 million cubic meters, which in turn is roughly equal to 10000 olympic swimming pools or 10 Great Pyramid of Gizas Every day. With an increasing pace.
I'm not so great with math stuff, it was never my strongest subject despite it's real world need so the Olympic swimming pools and pyramid references really helped me with this. We are definitely in need of some changes to our thinking these days based on the responses here.
Topics like these always make me think of the Planet Earth series. They called the world's rain forests "the lungs of the world" because of how crucial they are in cleaning and replenishing our atmosphere. Our ecology is essentially in a balance where the CO2 absorbed during the wetter seasons is released during the dryer cooler seasons when plants shed parts that decompose, releasing CO2. Our oceans also absorb CO2,helping keep the atmosphere keep balance.
So urban development and it's resulting waste products like, CO2, resource depletion, pollution, and trash, upset this balance by adding excess into this equation that the ecology simply can't process.... or rather processes it in a way that's bad for humans(and other species). So urban development as it is now, urbanism as it is now, society as it's built and maintained now, these systems are responsible for climate change. I think it could be done sustainably, but that's a whole other topic I guess haha