Benefits of trees: Carbon sequestration

Scientific evidence indicates that carbon dioxide levels may induce drastic alterations in climate through global warming. Trees assist in removing carbon dioxide, or CO2, from the air or prolonging its release through a process called carbon sequestration.

CO2 comes from human and animal waste products and is expelled though breathing. It also is discharged as a byproduct of burning fossil fuels.

Here are environmentally sound ways you can promote carbon sequestration:
• Plant and grow trees. This is the least expensive and most effective way of drawing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Trees store CO2 within their masses. One acre of forest land stores 150 to 200 tons of gas in its first 40 years. (The gas returns to the atmosphere, however, when wood is burned.)
• Help preserve older forests, which hold more carbon dioxide than new forests.
• Recycle used paper and use recycled paper so that fewer trees are harvested to make virgin paper.