– If trees release the carbon again that they have absorbed throughout their life, when they die, why do we even plant trees then?
In: Biology
For two main reasons, already evoked but separately in the thread:
1. throughout their entire lifespan, they consume CO2 from the atmosphere _and_ release O2 back to the atmosphere. It is a net positive effect.
2. When trees die, they do release carbon, but the majority is in the form of complex carbohydrates that go into the ground, and not CO2.
This only regards the carbon emissions. Overall, trees have many other critically important roles to the balance of the ecosystem.
Latest Answers