How do they come up with the correlation of CO2 emissions and planting trees?

Question

I recently saw this: “An average router consumes 6 watts of electricity an hour. Leaving a router on for a year creates about 24 KG of CO2. If you switch your router off for an average of 8 hours a day, that’s the equivalent of planting one tree.” I have no idea what flair this falls under.

In: Other

Answer 1

CO2 is created as a byproduct of some types of energy production. You can look at how much co2 is released for how much energy/electricity is created/stored and create a rate for co2 per watt. If you shut off your router you’re saving power therefore releasing some lesser amount of co2. The difference between the co2 you would’ve released through turning your router off is roughly equivalent to the amount of co2 planting one tree would use to create carbohydrates through photosynthesis.