Just how many trees am I supposed to plant?

Quite an interesting question, right? But the not so easy to answer.  Do you have the answer? I guess not, and neither do I. Even so, I have an idea that will help you find the answer. Let’s take a few minutes and see how this turns out.

Planting trees in your neighborhood really is one of the best things you can do not only for the local environment but also for the planet at large. Of course, it’s clear that trees help the environment, but surprisingly, the benefits that planting trees can provide goes beyond this. Rather than just producing oxygen and removing carbon dioxide and contaminants from the air, trees have many other social, economic, and environmental benefits.

Well, we know the pressing issue here that’s making us talk more and more about trees. With ever-increasing CO₂ emissions seeming to jeopardize our stay here on planet Earth, the need for amicable solutions has always been a priority. It turns out however that planting of trees has been proved, beyond doubt, to be the cheapest, easiest and the friendliest activity that brings a perfect solution. But the question is, how? A quick look at how all this happens; CO₂ being one of the major contributing elements to the greenhouse effect, trees trap it from the atmosphere and make carbohydrates that are used for plant growth. They in return give us oxygen. According to ColoradoTree.org, mature trees can absorb roughly 48 pounds of CO₂ a year. This translates to around 21kg of CO₂ a year. Assuming that an average lifetime of a tree 50 years, this means that an average tree is able to absorb a little more than 1 tonne of CO₂ in its entire lifetime.

Basically, it’s so hard for someone to score a carbon footprint of below 1 tonne a year especially in the developed and the oil-producing developing nations. Roughly, if your emissions per year are more or less 1 tonne, then you might need to plant close to 50 trees to keep pace with your yearly emission offsets. A person with a yearly footprint of 2 tonnes might need to plant approximately 100 trees, and the story goes on. With all that said and by doing a self-assessment, does your footprint match up your expectations? I am also a victim.

An interesting fact, a single tree releases enough oxygen to sustain two human beings. Again, the question is, how many lives do you sustain?

You probably got the right answer right now :)

I guess it’s time to be responsible enough and take the expected actions.

By: Kelvin Jimmy Awori