| Frequently Asked Questions How does storing CO2 in trees work?
Plants are solar powered chemical factories that obtain the carbon (C) they need for their growth from the CO2 in the air. With energy from sunlight CO2 is converted into oxygen (O), which the plants 'breathe out', carbohydrates, and fiber/woody compounds created from the C in CO2 and the H (hydrogen) in water. A proportion of these carbohydrate products are used for daily maintenance for example, for respiration. The rest are used as building material for plant growth. Roughly a half of a tree (foliage, branches, trunk, roots) consists of carbon. Some of this carbon decays and is respired into the atmosphere when the leaves fall or a branch dies. However some of this litter carbon ends up in the humus layer of the soil. Over the very long term, hundreds of years, decomposition releases the carbon back into the atmosphere as CO2. But as long as a tree continues to grow, it will continue to scrub CO2 from the atmosphere and be a net carbon bank. New forests remove more CO2, because the trees are growing fast. A mature old growth forest is in an ecological balance and contains both old trees and young trees, so on balance just as much CO2 is taken up as is released by death and decay. Thus old forests are are a bank of carbon and are 'CO2 neutral'. For many other reasons for ensuring that forests are used sustainably rather than destroyed include forests' biodiversity and their influence on cloud formation. 
back to top How many tons of CO2 does a tree store?
The answer to this is not simple, because there are so many different tree species and they react differently, depending on where they're growing and on how much water, nutrients, sun, wind they receive. CarbonForest always bases its calculations on forest ecosystems, because until the ecosystem is mature and in equilibrium, the undergrowth and soil, as well as the trees take up CO2 and sequester some of it. There's great variation here too. Our rule of thumb is that a mature Temperate rainforest forest has sequestered 1200 or more tons of CO2 per hectare. A popular way of doing the calculation is to use the number of m3 of biomass (leaves, plus branches plus trunks plus roots etc.), because 1m3 of biomass weighs about 1 ton. About 50% of the biomass consists of solids, the rest is water. Half of the solid matter (i.e. a quarter of the biomass) is carbon. So, to get the amount of CO2, you multiply the amount of carbon by 3.66. To make the arithmetic easier, you could round up the 3.66 to 4. You then get 1 m3 of forest biomass equals 1 ton of CO2. back to top How many tons of CO2 are there on Earth and where are they?
Most of the planets carbon is in the ocean but that's not really "on earth." 
About 1 trillion tons of carbon (1000 Gt C) is stored (sequestered) in forests (including in the first 1 metre of the ground) another similar amount is stored in other forms of plant and soil systems. The atmosphere contains 580 billion tons (580 Gt C) in the form of CO2. Every year, forests take up 100-120 Gt C via photosynthesis. Of this, 90 - 110 Gt C is released back into the atmosphere by plant respiration and decay. Some 0.8 - 2.4. Gt C are released by deforestation and by taking agricultural land out of production. The burning of fossil fuels and the production of cement release about 5.7 - 6.9 Gt C per year. 
back to top What influence do forests have on the greenhouse effect?
If there were no growing forests, the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere would rise much more rapidly. It's been estimated that growing forests take up about 900 million tons (3.3 billion tons of CO2) every year. So, without these forests, instead of being 11.7 billion tons, the net emission of CO2 would be 15 billion tons - that's almost 30% more. More than 25% of the increase in the CO2 concentration is caused by deforestation. back to top Surely the carbon in the forest is released eventually?
For as long as it continues to grow, a forest system is a net sink of CO2. At a certain point the growth slows down; old trees die and decay into humus, releasing CO2 that young growing trees take up. There is balance in the uptake and emission of CO2. In a managed forest the wood is harvested, which means that the carbon can be kept out of the atmosphere for a long time: 30 years if the wood is used as timber, 1-2 years if it's made into paper. But ultimately the carbon in these products will also be lost. The balance is maintained if new trees are planted, or if good natural rejuvenation is possible in the forest. New forest planted on agricultural land or wasteland takes up a lot of CO2 for 50 to 150 years. back to top How many trees must I plant to compensate for my emissions? On average a North American household is responsible for about 15 tons of CO2 per year. This is quickly calculated. Let's assume you have a car that runs on gas and that you drive 16,000 km (~8000 miles) per year. So, every year you need to compensate for 3 tons of CO2. On average, a person has a car for 40 years, so produces 120 tons of CO2. Assuming a capacity to take up 6 tons of CO2 per hectare per year, a half hectare (5000 m2 or 2/5 of a football field) of growing forest is needed to compensate for your car's exhaust emissions. A car that runs on diesel needs 0.4 hectares of forest and an LPG car needs over 0.35 hectares. In a new forest in the North America we plant an average of 3000 -4000 trees per hectare on former agricultural land. back to top Can forests solve the climate problem?
No. Forests give us a breathing space and simultaneously help solve other environmental problems. By protecting forests you can cut CO2 emissions by a quarter. By planting forests you can proactively remove extra CO2 from the atmosphere. The longer a forest remains standing, the more CO2 is removed from the atmosphere. back to top Can I help?
Of course you can! First and foremost, reduce your energy consumption and for more immediate ideas on what you can do read the segment below. Save the world and save yourself some money today! Not quite ready to personally invest in carbon forestry? That's ok -- you can still help save the Earth through some action in your own life and save some money. Many people are still using the same sort of light bulb Thomas Edison invented when they could be using one that lasts many times longer, uses one-fourth or less of the energy, and provides the same amount of light. Start today by buying a few compact fluorescent light bulbs at the market. The purchase price of compact fluorescent bulbs is more than incandescent ones (around U.S. $8 each at discount stores), they quickly pay for themselves and start saving consumers money thanks to their long life and lower energy consumption. If all the homes in North America replaced their next burned-out light bulb with a compact fluorescent, we could prevent more than 17 billion pounds of carbon dioxide being emitted—that's equivalent to taking 1.5 million cars off the road for an entire year. The savings that results by replacing four incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs over the course of a year taking into account the initial cost of the new bulbs is about $40! Over the lifetime of the four bulbs the total saved would be $200-$300. A refrigerator costs the average North American household $120 a year in electricity. You can save significant energy by taking care of your refrigerator for example adjusting the appliance's temperature upward by 1 degree, placing the fridge in a cool spot (away from a sunny window), checking that the seals work properly, and keeping the door closed, and most important simply dusting off the coils on the back twice a years will make it much more efficient and save you $30-$40 a year in electricity. Hot water is a big energy cost. Save water and energy by using it more frugally, letting the sink run while you brush your teeth or shave wastes hot water and energy. A leaky faucet that drips every three seconds can waste 30 gallons (110 liters) of water a month. An 8-minute shower compared with a 10-minute shower will save about 300 gallons (1,100 liters) of water a month, low-flow showerheads can save much more water—as much as 11,000 gallons (41,500 liters) for a three-person family, saving U.S. $255 a year. When is the TV or Microwave Really Off - Phantom Loads Five percent of the annual electricity bill is consumed by appliances that are switched "off," for example one-fourth of the energy consumed each year by the TV is used when it is supposedly turned off but is really in sleep mode waiting to turn on very quickly. In fact any appliance or piece of electronic or office equipment that has a remote control, battery charger, internal memory, AC adapter plug, instant-on feature, permanent display, or sensor consumes electricity even when it's switched off…The only way to stop wasting that energy is to unplug them or use a power source with a hard switch More Ways to Save Energy, Money: A car emits as much carbon dioxide a year as an entire house. Improving the fuel efficiency (miles per gallon) of your car is the single best thing you can do to prevent global warming. You can make a difference by choosing what kind of car you drive, how often you drive it, and how you drive it. A tune-up may improve your car's efficiency by 15 to 50 percent. A $1.49 bottle of fuel injector cleaner every 10,000 miles (20,000 km) will "tune up your car about as well as the average tune up. The more smoothly you drive, the less gas the car will use. Accelerating or braking rapidly when you're traveling at highway speeds can worsen your fuel efficiency by 33 percent. Keeping your tires properly hard and inflated can reduce your gasoline consumption by 6 percent, saving the average car U.S. $40 a year in gas. back to top | 
