Russ Steele
Can someone explain this to me?
As I understand it the whole carbon credits game, CO2 polluters buy carbon credits, which are used to plant trees that take CO2 from the air. On the other hand, every tree removed to reduce the fire danger is one more tree that will not be removing CO2 from the air. Are we removing more trees that we are planting? Who is keeping the records? Are we winning or loosing the carbon credits game?
The Governor is buying carbon credits, which will be used to plant trees and other notable are doing the same. Yet in the National Forests and around Lake Tahoe we are removing trees to reduce the ladder fuels that enable the development of uncontrolable crown fires in old growth timber. How do we account for the removal of the trees in the global warming calculation? If the Governor buys ten new trees for every flight, to and from LA to Sacramento, and the foresters are remove 100 trees a day to reduce the fire danger, we seem to be in loosing CO2 sequestering game. Who is keeping score?
Oh, another thought, what happens when all those trees planted as carbon credit were to burn in a forest fire, and all that sequestered carbon is released into the air? Do the Governor and those notables that bought the trees to reduce the CO2 have to pay again. The burned trees are no longer reducing the CO2 they put into the air. Again this seems like a loosing game with no score keeper.
Then there is the other issue, where are these carbon credit trees being planted? According to recent studies only tropical trees reduce much green house gas, the mid-latitude forest are neutral and the higher latitude forest are CO2 contributors. So, where are the trees the Governor is paying for being planted. In the tropical forests? But, is this not where the trees are being cleared to plant palm plantations to produce bio-fuel. How do we know that the trees planted to reduce CO2 are not cut down to clears the land to grow crops for bio-fuel. And, if they are, who is keeping the records. If that happens, will those who paid for the initial planting have to pony up some more carbon credits. Again, where is the score keeper?
It seem to me with no method for keeping track of what happened to all those carbon credit trees, the whole scheme is a big sham, a big hoax on the public. So, environmentalist if there is a method for keeping score, please explain to me how the system works.
