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I don't really know and I've been wondering for a while. HN might be the best place to get an informed answer. Here is my reasoning. Say I give enough to plant
by toto444 4y ago
I don't really know and I've been wondering for a while. HN might be the best place to get an informed answer.
Here is my reasoning. Say I give enough to plant 10 trees a month. In 10 years that's 1,200 trees. Let's say half of them die, we're left with 600. Assuming a tree absorb 1 ton of CO2 throughout its life, that 600 tons. I live in a place where CO2 emissions per capita are about 6 tons a year (check for yourself here and don't forget to compare with the US https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emis... ).
According to this back of the enveloppe calculation after 10 years I would have planted enough trees to offset 100 years of carbon emissions.
- simongray 4y agoI just "bought" 21 trees as a gift to someone (to be planted in Denmark, not Iceland). This amount supposedly offsets what the average Danish person emits in a month according to the organisation I bought it from. Not sure where you're from, but the average American emits something like 2.5 times what the average Dane does, so that would work out to ~60 trees that need to planted monthly (if you're American). Obviously, your mileage may vary. In any case, it really puts into perspective how messed up our continued use of fossil fuels is.
- yownie 4y agoAnother interesting metric for you, the average Icelander wastes 8x the electricity an EU mainland counterpart does.
- toto444 4y agoThanks for the correction. Just found this estimate 'the average tree absorbs an average of 10 kilograms, or 22 pounds, of carbon dioxide per year for the first 20 years.' My quick calculation of 1 ton of CO2 being absorbed is off by a factor of five then (200kg over 20 years).