– If trees release the carbon again that they have absorbed throughout their life, when they die, why do we even plant trees then?

Question

– 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

Answer 1

This is a system of equilibrium. The more trees are currently alive (or, more accurately, the more raw wood matter is currently in existence), the less CO2 is in the atmosphere.

By reducing the total amount of wood matter, we add CO2. By increasing it, we remove CO2.

Coal was largely formed by wood matter which was never able to convert back to CO2 and got trapped underground. This means that every tree’s worth of coal we have burned becomes a tree’s worth of wood matter that must now be sustained.

Additionally, not all wood matter is ‘recycled’ into CO2. Wood which becomes paper or houses or what have you remains in its wooden state and does not become CO2.

This is to say that renewable wood farming is essentially carbon capture.