Thousands of hectares of agricultural land in British Columbia are being planted with trees so that companies can gain credits for carbon sequestration, says NDP agricultural critic Lana Popham.
During a tour of the province, the MLA has been hearing about the practice from ranchers and farmers who are worried about the loss of food productivity and who say they are being outbid for good farmland by large, foreign corporations.
Given the massive drought in California and the uncertain future of food production everywhere due to climate change, it seems crazy to take valuable farmland out of production to grow trees. That is especially true in British Columbia, where there are already extensive tracts of industrial forest land that have been logged and which are waiting to be replanted.
There’s room for more trees in the forest land base, but Ms. Popham said companies want flat, open farmland because it is easier and cheaper to replant trees there.
MARK HUME – Globe and Mail – Apr. 12 2015.
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Wait.
Lose farmland for the planting of trees, and not the green leafy kind, I’ll wager…blue spruce and pine do capture CO2…I’ve just googled, however, not as effectively as big green leaves. My guess is that the trees being planted aren’t oak trees.
By doing this, we lose some of our capacity to feed the global population…7.2 billion presently.
A growing global population…especially in those developing nations, is the main cause of the demand for, and burning of fossil fuels in the first place…the mechanism by which CO2 is liberated back into our atmosphere after many millions of years trapped within the earths crust.
As there is no sign that population growth is due to slow down any time soon…exponentially, the demand for BOTH agriculture and fuel, will grow exponentially with it.
Seems to me that population growth is the real problem that we face within the coming years.
How to deal with that, I wonder…
Much to ponder, much to ponder 😉
Hate to say this, but we can’t eat trees.
True. Yuck
But we also can’t eat money. So why not spend it on carbon credits. LOL
Will we never learn? 😉