Trees….

In a world where we can build huge multi-storey buildings within months rather than years and we can create transport networks which cover the whole planet, I find trees retain an incredible integrity. A huge majestic tree is not something which you can build or create, it will grow in its own way, in it’s own time.

If you had all the money in the world it would be nigh on impossible to ‘artificially’ plant a tree on a building site or in a garden. you must be patient and wait for the tree to grow. Once a 300 year old tree is felled we must wait another 300 years to replace it. I respect trees hugely, many have been around in this world longer than we have, and they are alive!

Whilst thinking of trees my thoughts wandered onto the subject of carbon footprinting of goods, and I begun to think about the apple trees that I planted last week. If trees are an overall good thing for CO2, then surely apples, which grow on trees, must have a negative CO2 value? Then I started thinking about other vegetables, and in fact anything that grows that we eat! They all, being plants must take in CO2 in their lifetime… which I thought was a very, very interesting thought!

If we were able to pick local veg ourselves, then surely there would be a POSITIVE impact on the environment….

Interesting thoughts…..

ellen

9 comments have been made

  • Laurence
  • 18th December, 2007

Yup C02 is a contained with in all carbon based life forms , and is released generally on death . (Coral reefs play a big part on this maintaining balance.

Methane is of course a far larger greenhouse deposit (produced of course mainly by bovine s ;) ), and of course any mass farming production.

All things have their way and method of being , may i refer you to the Tao Te Ching for some rather compatible reading.

  • Louise
  • 19th December, 2007

Happy Birthday Mobi!! x

  • Louise
  • 19th December, 2007

Laurence
I´ve been reading your previous messages about the water bottles!

Have you been on the Christmas Sherry already ? :0) x

  • Laurence
  • 19th December, 2007

Lol no , I oft have silly whims :D
Oh yes I forgot it was mobi’s “birthday” . Here’s hoping Mobi and Ellen have a some what less stressful and more relaxing festivities :D

  • Richard Atkinson
  • 20th December, 2007

Certainly picking your own local vegetables reduces carbon emissions, but only because they don’t need to be transported. The problem is, you eat the fruit, you release the carbon again. It could be breathing out CO2, it could be releasing methane, it could be your sewerage. If the tree dies and rots or burns then it releases its carbon again. This is where you have to look carefully at the argument that plantation timber is good for the environment. If the timber is burnt, or turned into paper which then rots or is burnt, then it isn’t ‘locking up’ any carbon. If it is used for furniture or construction where it remains intact for many years, then it is retaining the carbon that it absorbed. (At least, that’s my primative understanding).

Cheers and Merry Christmas.

  • moos moos
  • 20th December, 2007

Sorry off topic, but as someone has mentioned local produce already I thought I would give this a mention.

There was a news article on the BBC last night on how far Scampi has to travel to our plates. langoustine is harvested in Scottish waters. It is then shipped to Thailand to be “hand” peeled and is then shipped all the way back to the UK.

The food produces say that ” shipping scampi to and from Thailand is no more environmentally damaging than peeling it by machine in this country.”

Firstly, even if that is true, who the hell wants to eat fish that has travelled that sort of distance.

Secondly, with x million unemployed in the UK, why aren’t they peeling langoustine by hand? Its not that there isn’t enough people.

Here is the full article, I’ve banged on long enough

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7150834.stm

Oh.. and Merry Christmas

  • Laurence
  • 20th December, 2007

Economics. It propably costs a company less to ship the scampi from teh poorly paid workers , low manufacture costs for factories etc etc from the far east , then to pay people here , NI , higher running costs.

Its all linked sadly :(. As they say , benig a consumer you have the power to stop it (books like No Logo and Fast Food Nation) help to explain how relative industries work.

Happy Yule, Edi/Mithras/Christmas/Day of Horus etc to all (i think i covered them all there (has Honika finished yet ??))

  • Louise
  • 22nd December, 2007

Moo Moo (taking a break from his recycling) and Laurence!! It makes you wonder where peoples heads are when these things are planned.

My question to everyone is… if your country does not produce something, then is it ok for that product to be transported to you?
Or, do we live with the idea that if your country does not produce it, then you live without it?
Do we take it to this extreme or is there a happy medium to be found??

Does España get to keep all the oranges?

A happy Christmas (feliz Navidad) to you all :0) x

Good comment. It brought light to an old idea I had.

Leave a Reply