Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Pine trees may help create smog, acid rain (The trees are killing us!)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) ^ | 3/13/2003 | Danny Kingsley

Posted on 03/16/2003 8:15:20 PM PST by FatherOfLiberty

The Lab News in Science   tile graphic  

Environment News

Space News

Health News

   

   

Pine trees may help create smog, acid rain
Thursday, 13 March  2003
pine tree

Could pine trees be making things worse? Latest research suggests they contribute to smog
 

Rather than being a global warming solution, pine trees may be inducing smog and acid rain by releasing vast amounts of nitrogen oxide into the air, researchers have discovered.

Under some circumstances, needles from Scots pine trees can release nitrogen oxides directly into the atmosphere, according to a report in today's issue of the journal, Nature.

A team led by Professor Pertti Hari of the University of Helsinki in Finland, conducted experiments with new pine shoots from Pinus sylvestris, measuring the amount of nitrogen oxides they emitted when exposed to sunlight.

Nitrogen oxides (NOx), along with hydrocarbon gases and sunlight, are the three ingredients needed to make photochemical smog that clogs the skies of many urban centres, as well as acid rain.

The researchers were surprised to find NOx produced by the pine needles, and that levels rose when shoots were exposed to ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. While the amount produced was insignificant on a local scale, "our findings suggest that global NOx from boreal coniferous forests may be comparable to those produced by worldwide industrial and traffic sources," said the authors.

Other scientists were cautious. "I would like to see a more qualitative estimate of how significant that might be in comparison to all the other sources of nitrogen oxide in the atmosphere," said Associate Professor David Griffith of the atmospheric chemistry research group at Australia's University of Wollongong.

While the gases produced by pine trees could in theory deliver as much air pollution as worldwide industrial emissions, in reality most trees do not grow in air that has the very low background levels of nitrogen oxides needed for the trees to emit NOx in the first place.

"If there are already nitrogen oxides in the air, there will be a net uptake, they will be taken up by the trees," he told ABC Science Online.

The study did show for the first time that forests can produce two of the three critical ingredients for smog, and it had been previously established that trees produce hydrocarbons. "No-one has recognised before that they also produce the nitrogen oxides," said Griffith. "Once you put both those ingredients together you can form photochemical smog."

But the amount of nitrous oxides required for this to happen are in the order of tens of parts per billion, and the research has only found levels of one to three parts per billion, he said.

"What I can't judge is how significant this would be globally," he added. "It's going to be a local effect. Nitrogen oxides don't have a long lifetime in the atmosphere." By comparison, nitrous oxides have a very long lifetime, and can spread all over the world.

Australia does not have a lot of boreal or 'needle tree' - forests, because they tend to exist in high latitude areas. But the findings could be relevant on a local scale in Australian pine plantations, Griffith said.

Large scale planting of pine trees to act as 'carbon sinks' has been promoted by some, the theory being that fast-growing trees absorb and retain carbon dioxide from the air. Carbon dioxide is widely cited one of the major contributors to global warming.

Danny Kingsley - ABC Science Online

© 2003 ABC | Privacy Policy
 



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: acid; enviralists; enviromentalism; environazi; environment; envirowacko; envirowhacko; envirowhackoalert; pine; rain; science; smog; trees
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last
What a conundrum for the environazis! Do we protect the trees, or are they killing us???
1 posted on 03/16/2003 8:15:21 PM PST by FatherOfLiberty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: sweetliberty
No more Christmas trees, Lib. They're killing us.
2 posted on 03/16/2003 8:17:20 PM PST by FatherOfLiberty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FatherOfLiberty
Do you know what makes the "Blue Ridge" mountains blue?
Do you know why they call them the "Smokey" Mountains?
It is from the haze created by the emissions from the trees.
3 posted on 03/16/2003 8:18:45 PM PST by error99 ("I believe stupidity should hurt."...used by permission from null and void all copyrights apply...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FatherOfLiberty
I can tell you they drop massive amounts of yellow pollen all over everthing and we all end up sick. Guess we're allergic to pine trees. Wouldn't mind getting rid of them myself, they can also become missiles in hurricane force winds. But God has a purpose for them, at least they keep the doctors in business.
4 posted on 03/16/2003 8:19:48 PM PST by tutstar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FatherOfLiberty
I always knew we were in a fight to the death with trees.

The chain saw is your friend.
5 posted on 03/16/2003 8:20:43 PM PST by CurlyDave
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FatherOfLiberty
Gee, maybe that's why they're trying to do away with Christmas.
6 posted on 03/16/2003 8:21:46 PM PST by sweetliberty ("To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: tutstar
There was a government report in the 70s on this.

Pine trees put more hydrocarbons in the air than automobiles!

The report was quashed but I saw a copy of it that a Congressman had.
7 posted on 03/16/2003 8:22:24 PM PST by dalereed
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: FatherOfLiberty
I’ve already emailed this to my tree-hugging brother. I asked if committing tree genocide would be justifiable as self-defense in this case.
8 posted on 03/16/2003 8:26:56 PM PST by Red Dog #1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FatherOfLiberty
Pine trees are very very bad,no one needs this very very bad tree. :}
9 posted on 03/16/2003 8:28:32 PM PST by noutopia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dalereed; FatherOfLiberty
Actually,
This came up during Reagan's years.

He said in a speech that trees contribute to certain unwanted emissions. (His staff had done some research.)

He was ridiculed in the press. (naturally).
But he was right in certain respects.
10 posted on 03/16/2003 8:29:54 PM PST by edwin hubble
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: dalereed
Pine trees put more hydrocarbons in the air than automobiles!

I wish I could put my finger on the study, but I recall a report about the Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines in the early 1990s saying that it dumped more nitrous oxides and hydrocarbons into the atmosphere than decades worth of industrial emissions.

11 posted on 03/16/2003 8:36:03 PM PST by FatherOfLiberty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Red Dog #1
Make sure your brother reads post 5 - "The chain saw is your friend." - LOL
12 posted on 03/16/2003 8:38:40 PM PST by FatherOfLiberty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: FatherOfLiberty
First, they'll establish a "waiting period" before I can plant another tree in my yard. Then they'll say that I can have one pine tree but not two. Then they'll say that I can have one until it reaches twelve feet in height. I say that I'll keep planting them until they pry my cold dead fingers off my shovel.

By the way, does this apply to blue junipers?

WFTR
Bill

13 posted on 03/16/2003 8:44:36 PM PST by WFTR
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tutstar
I can tell you they drop massive amounts of yellow pollen all over everthing and we all end up sick. Guess we're allergic to pine trees.

I'm an avid woodworker, and I can tell you there are some nasty problems that can be caused by expose to certain chemicals in wood. Chemicals in wood have been found to cause or contribute to nausea and headaches, kidney and liver malfunction, skin rashes and eye irritation, asthma, emphysema, and other respiratory problems, nasal cancer.

14 posted on 03/16/2003 8:47:52 PM PST by FatherOfLiberty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: FatherOfLiberty
"The chain saw is your friend."

I liked that one too.

15 posted on 03/16/2003 8:48:14 PM PST by sweetliberty ("To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: FatherOfLiberty
Okay, because I grew up living nearly half my life next to pine trees in Minnesota, I guess my move to California was to allow me to experience the "clean atmosphere" of the Palm tree!

Gee, I just thought I was moving some place warm. What do you know!

(/deeply breathing in that clean CA air --- cough, cough)

16 posted on 03/16/2003 8:56:50 PM PST by NordP (Did you see what Saddam did to the Beagle puppies? He's dead meat!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FatherOfLiberty
I was told once that wood dust had all of the clinical properties
to be classified as a carcinogen but politics forbade doing so.
17 posted on 03/16/2003 8:57:20 PM PST by error99 ("I believe stupidity should hurt."...used by permission from null and void all copyrights apply...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: tutstar
My cars are covered with the pollen now and it will be a lot worse before it gets better.
18 posted on 03/16/2003 8:59:15 PM PST by lonestar (Don't mess with Texans)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: error99
I wish politics played a bigger role in OTHER chemicals NOT being classified as carcinogens.
19 posted on 03/16/2003 9:00:19 PM PST by FatherOfLiberty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: FatherOfLiberty
The conifers are coming! The conifers are coming!

I always knew nature was trying to kill us! Time to start stripmining!

/sarcasm - as if you had to ask.


20 posted on 03/16/2003 9:00:40 PM PST by Rasputin_TheMadMonk (Yes I am a bastard, but I'm a free, white, gun owning bastard. Just ask my exwife.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson