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My Philosophy and Why? Recently I’ve begun to wonder how much damage that my traveling has done to ecology of the world and collectively how much damage we have caused through global warming. And most importantly what I, as a single human could do to help reverse this phenomena. I guess that the insane weather we have been experiencing and the collective lack of action from those who have power (and the unwillingness to do anything due to their own self interest) have helped formulate this article. I’m not going to go into the pros and cons on whether global warning is man-made or not, as far as I’m concerned any person can see for themselves the pollution, environmental degradation caused by man. If you have had the pleasure of being on this earth for more than 20 years you have something to compare with.
We seem to be pushing at both ends as well. Not only are we building more cars, more roads, more factories and more power stations but we are also cutting down more trees as well. The backyards of houses that always had a number of trees are now too small and then there is deforestation due to forestry and the forests being burnt in Indonesia. And I won’t mention Africa and the Amazon rainforest. I’ve noticed that there are companies that will plant trees on your behalf to offset your carbon footprint but personally I don’t buy it. Capitalism is based on greed and can you tell me these companies that are growing these trees are not going to cut them down in 15 years time when people have long forgotten they have bought the tree. It’s the nature of the beast. They will cut them down and make more money and then ask for more money to grow more trees. So I can safely say that these schemes are not the answer. I was shocked when I started to research the topic just how many trees it takes to offset your travel, its frightening. Calculating how many trees I need to plant to offset my carbon footprint Firstly I have made a guess at how many mile of travel I need to offset Australia to London return twice is 40,000 miles Australia to Bangkok return twice is 20,000 miles Australia to Singapore 3 times is 18,000 miles Plus a few other flights as well – I’m going to say as an estimate 100,000 miles. The calculations are made more difficult as each source has its own opinion as to their calculation. But they are fairly consistent if not exact. The calculator I decided to use is located at the following link http://www.carbonify.com/carbon-calculator.htm Now my traveling I estimated as 100,000 miles over a 20 year period which is about 450 miles per month. The calculator estimates that I need to plant ~1 tree every month to offset this amount of travel. Now I have to add there are a number of assumptions These include: Travel was based on a Boeing 747 with an average amount of passengers – now I’ve flown on one jet for 1000km that had 6 people on board! Tree offset is calculated that of 5 trees planted 1 lives to become 40 years old. The older and bigger the tree the more carbon it can sequest. I have tried a number of other calculators and they say about the same thing – About 1 tree per month for the amount of traveling I’ve done. How can I plant 1 tree per month? Here is a problem many people will have – I don’t own a house and if I did, after the first year I would run out of room. So here is what I’m advocating - INDIVIDUALS SHOULD PLANT TREES ON PUBLIC LAND So you ask where? I live in a city there is no land Well here’s where I’d start – there may not be land in the city but if you go 20 miles out of the city I think you would find places. Try these: - Beside a river
- Beside a lake
- Next to a road
- In the median strip of a highway!
- In wasteland
- Near the beach
Now when I say public land I mean these types of places Please don’t plant trees on people’s private property, farmland or National Park Should you ask permission? – NO! Did anyone ask our permission to cut all the trees down in the first place and I realize this a bit of a public disobedience campaign I’m trying to start but if we leave it to governments and the rich WE ARE ALL DOOMED. The only way global warming can be beaten is by individuals taking control of their own situation to either decrease their energy usage or plant trees to offset their usage. I realize that some of these trees will be pulled down (and this is assumed in the calculations) but I think a lot of trees won’t particularly if you follow these steps Plant trees that are native to the area Plant them in areas that not many people go Do not plant trees near houses Best trees to plant for Carbon offsets Here is a list of 10 trees that best offset carbon (this list is from USA) 1. Maple 2. Pecan 3.American Beech 4 Tuplip Tree 5. London Planetree 6. Cottonwood 7. Oak 8. Redwoods 9. American Elm 10. American Basswood But looking at these trees it would seem that bigger and older is better. So for Australia Eucalypts would be a good option – large and live for 100 years Pines are also a good option as well. So in my next article I’m going to show you where I plant my first year of trees – 12 trees. |
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