Eleven trees for a green conscience

       

Further reading

• What does 'Emission Free' really mean? (6468)
• GHG Protocol of the WBCSD (100)
• Article in NY Times, ‘How Green Is My Conscience?’ (96)

A questionnable way of becoming carbon neutral?

In the U.S., Ms. Pashby subscribes to the programme of the Conservation Fund to become carbon neutral by planting trees. She discovered that paying 57$ for planting eleven trees and maintaining them for 70 years can offset the greenhouse gas emissions of her normal everyday activities. It is a creative idea, but one which also invites a few critical observations.

The first problem is that she only takes her everyday life into account. Secondly, only direct emissions and emissions related to energy from utility grids are reported. These do not include the indirect emissions that are a consequence of her material use, for example. If she really does want to be totally carbon-neutral, she would probably have to plant about 25 to 30 trees. But no answer can be that simple these days. What if those trees are cut down within 70 years and used as bio-fuel? And is planting trees really the most valuable option for the land? And, last but not least, what if everybody wanted to become carbon-neutral this way? That begs the question if there is enough arable land suitable for this particular approach. Certainly not arable land that is so cheap that one can buy it and grow eleven trees for a mere 57$.