From indri!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!bionet!agate!shelby!labrea!cdp!tgray Wed Sep  6 3 PDT 1989


Subject: Fast Growing Trees to Eat CO2

/* Written  6:43 pm  Sep  2, 1989 by jdmann in cdp:en.climate */
/* ---------- "Fast Growing Trees to Eat CO2" ---------- */
/* Written 8pm 9/3/89 by David Yarrow(jdmann) */ 
/* ----- PROJECT IS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR ----- */ 
Source: Syr Herald, Tuesday, July 29 in the Editorial Column 
                            FAST GROWING TREES
    Plants are nature's oxygen machines. They keep our atmosphere 
breathable by taking out the carbon dioxide and putting back oxygen. 
That's why the killing of the world's forests is such a critical problem.
    That's also why the work of two scientists at Syracuse's State 
University College of Environmental Science and Forestry is so important. 
At an ESF field in Tully, Dr. Edwin H. White and Dr. Lawrence P. 
Abrahamson have been making hydrib trees grow 10 to 20 times faster than 
their wild-growing cousins do. In the process, they are generating oxygen 
at a similarly accelerated rate.
    Much has been written lately about the "greenhouse effect" - which 
many scientists belive will result in global warming that will melt polar 
ice caps and flood coastlines while turning many inland areas into 
deserts. Excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, generated primarily by 
the burning of fossil fuels, will trap the sun's heat and not allow the 
earth to cool properly, so the theory goes.
    As humanity is not likely to curb its use of fossil fules in the near 
future, the most promising strategy in battling the greenhouse effects is 
to cultivate plants to eat up the excess carbon dioxide. (If you will 
remember your high-school biology, you know that photosynthesis is the 
process by which plants extract carbon dioxide from the air, use the 
carbon to build tissue and return the oxygen to the air.)
    The world is just now starting to heed alarms about the destruction 
of its forests - primarily in Asia and South America (30 million acres a 
year in the Amazon basin alone). This is a tragedy for the areas involved 
as wildlife species, deprived of their habitat, are dying out. It's also 
of grave concern for all humanity as carbon-dioxide builds up in the 
atmosphere faster than the world's plants can absorb it.
    The work of White and Abrahamson and scientists like them may be part 
of the answer. Besides generating oxygen, their super-trees also provide 
wood for fuel - which means leass coal and oil have to be burned.
    Thanks to their efforts, future generations may be able to breathe a 
little easier.
=============================================================
  COMMENTARY: Another case of "Can't see the forest for the trees."
  The idea of fast-growing trees, like faster cars, computers and returns 
on investment, sounds very clever - you know, racy. But both editor's and 
scientists' strategy lack common sense wisdom. 
  The very first sentence reveals the writer has gained little insight 
into Nature - by calling plants "machines" the writer reduces the Web of 
Life to mechanical objects in the industrial pipeline. Dying trees and 
ravaged forests are symptoms; the cause is our ignorant tampering with 
the Web of Nature. The solution is to reconcieve our understanding and 
relationship to Nature, not a license to engage in more tampering. 
  Nonetheless, it's noteworthy a local paper makes greenhouse effect an 
editorial concern - not for the first time. The writer may not see the 
Unity of the Natural World, yet the newspaper understands our complete 
reliance on a global ecosystem, and the acute threat to its stability. 
  The writer assumes we can and will keep burning fossil fuels, and lays 
the burden squarely on tropical rainforests. Yet ocean biomass is an even 
greater CO2 sink, especially conversion of CO2 to carbonates in shells - 
and oceans are in deep trouble too. How long until there is the awareness 
we MUST stop our massive daily burning of fossil fuels, among other 
practices, to stop the climate "machine" from spinning out of control. 
  The writer is unaware of lessons learned in agriculture's Green 
Revolution of the dangers of manipulating and narrowing the genetic base 
through hybridization. Similarly the notion of fast growing trees burned 
as fuel to reduce coal and oil burning is simply incorrect. CO2 is CO2, 
whether it comes from wood, coal, oil, gas, bacteria, landfills, burnt 
limestone, termites, or radiactive decay. 
  And from our point of view, the present man-made defrost cycle in the
planetary ecosystem is just another trigger for a polar deep freeze. Why are 
so many glaciers growing, not shrinking? Has anybody checked Antarctica? 
 -*+*- David Yarrow, the turtle, for SOLSTICE magazine. 
 ***** SOLSTICE "Perspectives on Health and Environment" is published 
bimonthly at 201 E Main St Suite H, Charlottesville, VA 22901 804-979-4427 


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From sdsu!bionet!agate!shelby!labrea!cdp!bmasel Wed Sep  6 12:13:04 PDT 1989


The researchers have also neglected existing plants which fix
carbon faster than most trees.  The hemp plant is the most
prolific photosaynthesizer in temperate climates, but illegal.

    By the way, burning biomass instead of fossil fuel will reduce
    greenhouse levels. Yes, CO2 is CO2, but if using biomass you
    burn that much less fossil fuel.  And all the CO2 released was
    already in the atmosphere prior to the photosynthetic process.
 If using hemp stalks for methanol the roots, leaves, and flowers
 are plowed back into the soil, returning almost all the nitrate
 and phosphate and some of the carbon.
______________________________________
          Ben Masel    Co-publisher of ZENGER
        "The Nation's Underground Newspaper"
            E-Mail me your Postal (hardcopy)
               address for a free sample.
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