U.S. launches program to offset carbon with trees - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

U.S. launches program to offset carbon with trees
Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:24PM EDT

By Timothy Gardner

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. consumers who see planting trees as
a way to fight global warming can now sprout them without getting
out the garden tools.

Federal agency the U.S. Forest Service and non-profit group the
National Forest Foundation launched a Web site on Wednesday
where consumers can pay a $6 to offset a tonne of carbon dioxide,
the main gas scientists link to global warming. Their donations will
pay for projects like the planting of ponderosa pines in a Montana
forest wiped out by a fire, or Douglas firs in an Idaho forest
damaged by a tornado.

-snip-

DO TREES FIGHT WARMING?

Not every scientist agrees that planting more trees in the United
States will cut greenhouse emissions. Ken Caldeira, a climate expert
at the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University, says restoring
forests outside the tropics will do little or nothing to stop climate
change.

-snip-

The Forest Service estimates that the country's forests absorb
10 to 15 percent of U.S. carbon emissions, and the number could
be boosted with more trees.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN2535222020070725

[soothsayer]

1. I know this is popular but it sounds like such a scam. If you buy tix through Expedia

they let you purchase carbon creditst that offset your trip. I like it conceptually but I worry that it's a big fat lie.

[Botany]

2. Will not work

The increased CO 2 will help trees and other plants grow but after
30 years or so trees will die and when they fall down
and decay they release CO 2.

[DCKit]

3. Unless they cut them down for the "Healthy Forests" initiative.

The forests ain't healthy unless them sawblades is a-spinnin.