JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – There is good reason to plant trees in an effort to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2).
People need to be concerned about CO2 levels because the more CO2 we pump into the atmosphere, the more our planet warms.
CO2 remains in the atmosphere for hundreds to thousands of years, making it a powerful influence on the long-term warming trend.
All trees filter impurities from the air but some trees are better than others at removing greenhouse gases.
The most efficient carbon absorbing trees are East Palatka holly, slash pine, live oak, southern magnolia and bald cypress.
Palms are the least effective at carbon sequestration. The average cabbage palm found throughout our area only takes in five pounds of CO2 per year.
Compared to other trees that can sequester more than 3,000 pounds of CO2 over their lifetime, it is best to skip palms in favor of broadleaf trees and conifers.
Even with the most carbon hungry trees, it would take several trees to offset the carbon dioxide produced from a typical passenger vehicle which emits about 9,200 pounds of CO2 per year.
For example, one gallon of gas burned produces about 20 pounds of CO2. For an average sized East Palatka holly tree that sequesters 769 pounds of CO2 a year, that would be equivalent to about 12 trees.
Together plants and the ocean absorb an amount of CO2 equal to about half of 40 billion tons of CO2 pollution emitted by humans each year.
But this is still not enough to stop the rate of CO2 increase in the atmosphere, which has been steadily accelerating.
According to data from NOAA, daily peak CO2 reached a record just over 421 ppm (parts per million), up from 417 ppm last year at Mauna Loa.
Even as CO2 levels rose steadily from year-to-year, measurements also exhibited a seasonal fluctuation that peaked in May, just before plants in the northern hemisphere start to remove large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere during their growing season.
In the northern fall, winter, and early spring, plants and soils give off CO2, causing levels to rise through May.
The continued increase in CO2 and the seasonal cycle are the main features of what is known as the Keeling Curve.