Source:
ReutersU.S. launches program to offset carbon with treesWed Jul 25, 2007 5:24PM EDT
By Timothy Gardner
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. consumers who see planting trees as
a way to fight global warming can now sprout them without getting
out the garden tools.
Federal agency the U.S. Forest Service and non-profit group the
National Forest Foundation launched a Web site on Wednesday
where consumers can pay a $6 to offset a tonne of carbon dioxide,
the main gas scientists link to global warming. Their donations will
pay for projects like the planting of ponderosa pines in a Montana
forest wiped out by a fire, or Douglas firs in an Idaho forest
damaged by a tornado.
-snip-DO TREES FIGHT WARMING?
Not every scientist agrees that planting more trees in the United
States will cut greenhouse emissions. Ken Caldeira, a climate expert
at the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University, says restoring
forests outside the tropics will do little or nothing to stop climate
change.
-snip-The Forest Service estimates that the country's forests absorb
10 to 15 percent of U.S. carbon emissions, and the number could
be boosted with more trees.
-snip-Read more:
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN2535222020070725