In article ,
"Peter Jason" writes:
|
| Has this been quantified? With all the talk
| about carbon credits this might be good info.

As Oliver Rackham is quoted as saying: "Planting trees to offset
carbon emissions is like drinking more water to offset rising
sea levels."

| Does one weigh the tree and do a mass
| balance, or is one element of cubic
| measurement worth so much CO2?

One weighs the tree, then weighs a sample, dries it, weighs it
again, and estimates the proportion of lignin, either by using
tables or by a chemical process. Then one calculates the result :-)

Water contains no carbon, cellulose and most sugars contain about
45% and lignin about 65%, if I have used the formulae correctly.
Those account for almost all of the weight of a tree.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.