An engineer has plans to develop a new woodland to eliminate her entire life’s carbon footprint, the Cambridge-based scientist is Dr. Alison Cooke who has pledged in the 2015 Paris climate change summit to reduce as much as CO2 she produced. Her studies show that she makes an amount of 695 tonnes of CO2 which can be eliminated by planting 2000 trees in a field that is two footfall pitches sized. She is initiating the plan from next month at a farm in Wiltshire.
Dr. Cooke believes that 1.7 hectares (4.2 acres) of woods will be required to offset her lifetime carbon emissions, based on statistics from the World Bank and an online carbon footprint calculator. One of the most surprising results, she added, was the influence of her regular flight travel for business.
“In terms of CO2 emissions, a single international flight across the Atlantic and back is nearly equivalent to my whole use of my car,” she observed.
“As a result, it prompted me to consider the future, not just in terms of offsetting what I had previously used, but also in terms of reducing future emissions.” She intends to start planting the trees in November, following the start of the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow on October 31st.
Over three months, a mixture of white elms and mixed native trees will be planted at Pertwood Manor Farm in Wiltshire.” I am very happy that I can now tell my children and their children that not only did I attempt to cut my carbon emissions year in and year out, but I have also completed a vow I made at COP21,” she added.
Is planting trees, however, going to be effective in reducing the CO2 cycle that we are creating?
No, adds Gauld-Angelucci, emphasizing the distinction: “A lot of climate change mitigation efforts right now are concentrating on establishing forests that aren’t necessarily in formerly wooded regions, which has its own set of concerns. However, the data show that just planting trees will not result in a reduction in the carbon cycle.
William Bond adds that tree-planting initiatives to offset carbon endanger the ancient grasslands and everything they sustain.”Many are unaware of the fact that grasslands store carbon in their soils and reflect more sunlight into space than forests, considerably contributing to global warming. ” William Bond is the primary author of a new study that proves the notion that planting trees everywhere can stop global warming wrong and explains why open grasslands in the savannas are necessary.
Effective ecosystem restoration is a multi-faceted process that entails more than just planting a few trees here and there. The dangers of relying only on trees are becoming apparent now, and rebuilding the planet’s ecosystems is so critical that the United Nations has warned of catastrophic extinction if we do not act within the next ten years.
“There are a lot of things that go into forest restoration projects because a forest does not exist on its own; it is part of a wider landscape and it is development work, which is hard, dirty, and expensive – but it is the most important, impactful work to conduct,” says Gauld-Angelucci.
Kesiya Kattukkaran