109. Cleaning up the carbon
Trees have a huge appetite for the carbon in carbon dioxide. When they’re young, and in peak growing years, trees absorb more carbon from the atmosphere. Then as they grow, just how hungry they are for carbon depends on a number of things: the kind of tree they are, the climate they live in, the site they live on and the way they’re looked after.
Once the carbon’s been stored, it stays locked into the wood even after the tree has been made into something else. The carbon only escapes when the wood is burnt or it decays. Which means, the paper you write on, the magazine you read and the chair you’re sitting on are still storing carbon.
- About half the dry weight of a tree is made up of carbon and 1 tonne of carbon equates to 3.67 tonnes of carbon dioxide. So, the more carbon is stored, the less carbon dioxide there is in the atmosphere.
