Coconut trees fall onto the beach as rising sea levels erode their bases on Tuvalu
What on earth is all the fuss about global warming? New Zealand has one million hectares of erosion prone land screeming out to be replanted. That would put one big offset hole in our cows` burbs. Just put the carbon back in the trees where it came from for goodness sake. How hard can it be?
15 years ago my wife and I paid to have Kyoto-qualifying pine trees planted on about 10 hectares of hilly, marginal, unproductive, and largely naked farm land in back-country Hawkes Bay. This is our family’s contribution to New Zealand’s 556,000 hectares of Kyoto Forests – those newly planted since 1990. The 3,000 trees left on our 10 hectares after some thinning and tending have already sucked in and locked up about 5,000 tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide. That will double over the remaining 15 years or so until we have them harvested, and replant so the whole thing goes around again for our kids and their families. Our family is well and truly in carbon credit. Is yours?
When we harvest, the extracted timber, which is 50% solid carbon, will be treated and used in building, furniture, etc – locking up what otherwise would have been atmospheric carbon for a long time. But this locking up in processed timber is yet to be formally recognised in global treaties. The New Zealand team to the Copenhagen negotiations in December 2009 have started the process to gain recognition for the long-term locking up of carbon in processed timber from plantations.
We’ll also collect several hundred thousand dollars for the wood from our plantation. That’s about 5% pa compounded return on our investment – as good as the long-run average for bank savings in New Zealand and well above that available on cash in most other countries. And we might even pick up some extra pocket money for carbon credits.
Don`t sweat global warming, just replant it.
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Tags: 100% Pure New Zealand, clean & green, clean & green NZ, Clean and Green, clean and green NZ, erosion-prone land, Kaitiakitanga, Replant, 植林
Bravo. I request permission to take a selection of this page http://www.greenbranz.org/?p=691 and reprint it on my web site. You have motivated me to plant more trees than just the 800 that I claim will make me a global cooling person (see the calculation at http://www.globalcoolingcenter.com). Thank you so much for your passion. I like the name: “Kyoto trees” If you are ever in Florida, send me an SMS to +19546468246 and we can meet so I can take you to lunch or tea, whatever works for you. BRAVO! buildinginternationalbridges@gmaill.com Steve McCrea Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Steve plase help yourself to content and piccies (please link back here). Great to hear that you have planted 800 trees in Florida and thanks for the cooling calculator. By your calculations we are spot on (with 3000 trees) to neutralise lifetime emissions from my wife and I and our 2 boys. No plans to be in your hemisphere anytime soon but if I ever get to Florida I`ll be sure to look you up. Conversely – drop into New Zealand`s stunningly beautiful Queenstown sometime http://www.queenstown-nz.co.nz/information/ and look me up.
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