Do trees make it OK to drive an SUV?

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[Sub-Driver]

Do trees make it OK to drive an SUV?

By MICHAEL HILL, Associated Press Writer 8 minutes ago

If you plant some trees, is it OK to drive an Escalade?

The question isn't as silly as it sounds. People worried about global warming increasingly are trying to "offset" the carbon dioxide — the leading greenhouse gas — they spew into the atmosphere when they drive, fly or flick on a light. One idea popular with the eco-conscious is to have trees planted for them. You get to keep driving and flying, but those trees are supposed to suck in your trail of carbon.

Whole forests have been funded by tree-loving celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and Coldplay, and more modest packages tailored to typical consumers are proliferating.

But some researchers say planting trees — while a good thing — is at best a marginal solution to global warming. Still others decry tree planters who continue to jet off to Cannes, drive their SUVs or generally fail to reduce their fuel-hungry lifestyle. To those critics, plantings and other carbon offsets are like the medieval practice of selling indulgences to wash away sins: It may feel good, but it doesn't solve much.

"The sale of offset indulgences is a dead-end detour off the path of action required in the face of climate change," says a report by the Transnational Institute's Carbon Trade Watch.

Groups that offer tree offsets typically rely on Web calculators requiring users to type in how many miles they drive, how much electricity they use and how far they fly. Figure out how much CO2 someone is responsible for (output), compare it to the work average trees can do (input), and you have a formula for neutralizing a person's "carbon footprint."

[Sub-Driver]

another one from the chapter of environmental guilt......

[P-40]

I think if you grow the tree to maturity, then cut it down and place it in an area where it cannot decompose, and then plant another tree in its place, you should be fine. :)

Or just put magnets on your exhaust to sequester the CO2. I'll have a product for that on late-night TV soon. :)

[pillut48]

CARBON OFFSETS ROCK!!! Er....TREE!!!
;-)

[patton]

I will plant as many trees as you care to pay for. Send money. $100/ea ought to do it.

[rface]

carbon dioxide — the leading greenhouse gas .....

I thought water vapor is the leading greenhouse gas??

[AlaskaErik]

Groups that offer tree offsets typically rely on Web calculators requiring users to type in how many miles they drive, how much electricity they use and how far they fly. Figure out how much CO2 someone is responsible for (output), compare it to the work average trees can do (input), and you have a formula for neutralizing a person's "carbon footprint."

If Al Gore drove a Honda Civic, lived in a 1800 sq ft house, used fluorescent light bulbs and flew coach instead of on private jets, he'd have a much smaller footprint. And he wouldn't be living a life of utter hypocrisy.

[patton]

Hillarious.

[DugwayDuke]

“Still others decry tree planters who continue to jet off to Cannes, drive their SUVs or generally fail to reduce their fuel-hungry lifestyle.”

I consider myself suitably “decried” since I own 10 acres of trees but still drive two pickup trucks, three ATVs, and a tractor.

[pillut48]

I thought it was methane and cow farts???

I just can’t keep up with all this global warming/cooling/warming stuff!!!

[Kimmers]

My SUV has been known to carry cut up tree parts....

[RightWhale]

How about if you drive your SUV into a tree, or, if you can’t find a tree in range of your holiday weekend eyesight, a utility pole? My neighbor did that yesterday and power was out for an hour. Nearly as loud as an IED.

[fanfan]

If Al Gore drove a Honda Civic, lived in a 1800 sq ft house, used fluorescent light bulbs and flew coach instead of on private jets,.....

ROFLOL!!!

[rface]

The major natural greenhouse gases are water vapor, which causes about 36-70% of the greenhouse effect on Earth (not including clouds); carbon dioxide, which causes 9-26%; methane, which causes 4-9%, and ozone, which causes 3-7%.

[rickmichaels]

People worried about global warming increasingly are trying to "offset" the carbon dioxide...

Why don't they just stick bananas in their tail pipes?

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I’ve planted a minimum of ten trees per year for the past twelve years on my farm. Just ‘cuz I like trees. :)

So, to ‘Eco-balance’ myself all of our old appliances, shoes, car batteries and CF light bulbs are thrown into the Wisconsin River.

*SMIRK*

This stuff just gets more and more stupid with each passing day. I hate Envio-Weenies...but you’ve got to give them credit for the great scams they get away with! ;)

[sgtbono2002]

It isnt hard to keep up with carbon credits, trees and such.

Just remember this , its all a scam.

A way to part John Q. Public from his money.

[pookie18]

http://www.carboncreditkillers.com/default.asp

[vetsvette]

“But some researchers say planting trees — while a good thing — is at best a marginal solution to global warming.”

He misses the point entirely. It matters not whether or not the “offsets” work, it’s whether or not the guilt is treated.

Algore, as the High preist of Extreme Environmentalwhachoism, is the equivalent of the Pope for those of the liberal religion and has the power to forgive sins against the church — Thus, one can drive the Escalade and, then, receive total and complete dispensation from Algore Carbon Offsets, Inc. by simply writing a check.

Your penance might also include the requirement to say 50 Hail Hillary’s or some such, but your record will be expunged and that’s really all that matters since man-made climate change is a crock to begin with.

[patton]

Get in the tree planting induldance selling game! Woo-hoo, free money - and in five years, you cut them down and sell them as christmas trees! It’s a win-win.

[HangnJudge]

This is dumb

Even if a tree temporarily sequesters CO2 for it’s lifetime, in the greater cycle of its death and degradation, all carbon would be returned to the environment. Over ~50 year cycle, no net gain is achieved, and the fossil fuels would still have been expended, its sequestered carbon released from stable depots.

If a legitimate path is to be hypothesized, it is to cease or minimize the fossil fuel burning. No other path is meaningful over the entire ecological cycle. The use of Carbon Credits is a guilt assuaging maneuver, the equivalent of the selling of special dispensations by the Catholic Church (a practice wisely ended, but resulting in the Protestant Reformation).

These idiots drive me nuts. It is a conservative ideal to Conserve. The Liberals are showing their intellectual and moral degradation at every step..

My favorite answer, and what I drive to work, when I can, at ~80mpg...