does planting trees really have a greenhouse benefit?
In 2006 hype was generated over the ‘trees as methane emitters’ issue following an often misrepresented study published in the journal Nature from the Max Planck Institute in Germany. Following intense media interest the team issued a statement on January 18 (2006) declaring plants are not to blame for greenhouse gas emissions and ‘the most frequent misinterpretation we find in the media is that emissions of methane from plants are responsible for global warming’. Frank Kepplar at the Institute stated “Trees absorb carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas, so planting them is still beneficial.” http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0118-mpg.html A team from the CSIRO has studied the issue. The following is from http://www.csiro.au/resources/PlantationsValidCarbonSinks.html: A team of CSIRO scientists led by Dr Philip Polglase tested this assumption by comparing estimates of methane emissions for seven different regional case studies of afforestation in Australia with the amounts of ca
