- Location
- Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
With my dusty well-travelled boots hardly back on the ground, I stepped straight into a tractor to make some more hay. With 2 other teams working the further ‘off ground’, we opened up some nearer to home and went at it hammer and tongs last week. Seeing the weather was going to stretch into this week, I also snuck home and laid down another 25 acres here for good measure. The old rubber band baler pulled out of the shed with only a few minor bits of beating back into shape - I had even acquired the appropriate spares in advance. And by golly, it doesn’t owe me much now. The total passed 1000 bales Tuesday afternoon, and so far yields are very good, and it’s smelling nicely fragrant. If this week’s rain runs on for a bit, what’s left to cut won’t hurt much, as it’s grass we lambed sheep on, which wasn’t laid up until mid May.
Then, listening to the tractor radio as I trundle about, I hear that we can fix global climate change by planting some trees. An area the size of the US was the figure bandied about. Well, that’s that sorted out then!
Well, no it’s not, it’s an infantile fantasy, and I can see we’re going to have to have a little talk about this again. Let me explain. Yes, planting and growing trees grabs carbon from the air…add a bit of water, and some trace elements from the soil, and that is what plants are made of. And because we live in a minute by minute world, where no-one can count to five before getting bored, the decades a tree takes to grow seems to be timeless and ‘forever’. But of course they are not. Most species of tree we can grow in the UK –for instance- are only actively grabbing more carbon for a century at best. After that, if they haven’t toppled over, they are rotting out in the middle – releasing the carbon again. Limbs rip off, fauna and flora recycle any bits of the poor old tree they can eat, and the carbon is moved on in its endless journey. As an example, I’m thinking of an ancient pollard oak that stands on a quiet rural crossroads near me. It is indeed a tree of immense age, character, and in its way, beauty. And it’s patiently been taking carbon dioxide out of the air for a long time. Sadly, it is also completely hollow now and I know from long experience handling timber that felled, it would weigh almost nothing. It has released immeasurably more carbon back into the atmosphere than it now holds.
So, by planting trees now with the intention of carbon capture, all you’re doing –the very best you can do- is foist our sins onto our great grandchildren….and what have the poor little unconceived mites done to deserve that?
If you want to drill a bit deeper…lets talk about this land we’re going to plant. It might come as a surprise to the urban minded sofa surfing and desk bound dreamers that the peasants on the ground are already using the dirt under their feet. Some it is used well, some less so, but people with dirt under their finger nails are already using it. You can’t expect to ‘reclaim’ it for the good of humanity, thinking you know best, without having an immense effect.
Mention an area the ‘size of the United States, and we imagine that specific block of land. OK, let’s take it as an example. A large chunk of it is very dry, and can barely keep tree cover alive, ne’er mind grabbing great tonnages of carbon. More is deep frozen for half the year, and yields very low volumes of growth. A lot of it is of course very suitable to be replanted, and brought back to verdant forest. Regrettably, this zone is currently being used to feed millions and millions of people. And the fallout from changing that landuse would be fairly dramatic…..and happen a lot faster than trees grow.
It is probably a good moment to reflect that 50 years ago we did indeed catapult 3 blokes up to the nearest other bit space rock we can stand upright on. And it was indeed a milestone in human achievement. But mostly, for me, it reminds us we’re stuck on this particular wobbly spinning ball of molten rock for now. It’s probably better we learn to fly Spaceship Earth before we dream of the stars. And the first thing we need to learn is that we have to stop burning fossil fuels.
Then, listening to the tractor radio as I trundle about, I hear that we can fix global climate change by planting some trees. An area the size of the US was the figure bandied about. Well, that’s that sorted out then!
Well, no it’s not, it’s an infantile fantasy, and I can see we’re going to have to have a little talk about this again. Let me explain. Yes, planting and growing trees grabs carbon from the air…add a bit of water, and some trace elements from the soil, and that is what plants are made of. And because we live in a minute by minute world, where no-one can count to five before getting bored, the decades a tree takes to grow seems to be timeless and ‘forever’. But of course they are not. Most species of tree we can grow in the UK –for instance- are only actively grabbing more carbon for a century at best. After that, if they haven’t toppled over, they are rotting out in the middle – releasing the carbon again. Limbs rip off, fauna and flora recycle any bits of the poor old tree they can eat, and the carbon is moved on in its endless journey. As an example, I’m thinking of an ancient pollard oak that stands on a quiet rural crossroads near me. It is indeed a tree of immense age, character, and in its way, beauty. And it’s patiently been taking carbon dioxide out of the air for a long time. Sadly, it is also completely hollow now and I know from long experience handling timber that felled, it would weigh almost nothing. It has released immeasurably more carbon back into the atmosphere than it now holds.
So, by planting trees now with the intention of carbon capture, all you’re doing –the very best you can do- is foist our sins onto our great grandchildren….and what have the poor little unconceived mites done to deserve that?
If you want to drill a bit deeper…lets talk about this land we’re going to plant. It might come as a surprise to the urban minded sofa surfing and desk bound dreamers that the peasants on the ground are already using the dirt under their feet. Some it is used well, some less so, but people with dirt under their finger nails are already using it. You can’t expect to ‘reclaim’ it for the good of humanity, thinking you know best, without having an immense effect.
Mention an area the ‘size of the United States, and we imagine that specific block of land. OK, let’s take it as an example. A large chunk of it is very dry, and can barely keep tree cover alive, ne’er mind grabbing great tonnages of carbon. More is deep frozen for half the year, and yields very low volumes of growth. A lot of it is of course very suitable to be replanted, and brought back to verdant forest. Regrettably, this zone is currently being used to feed millions and millions of people. And the fallout from changing that landuse would be fairly dramatic…..and happen a lot faster than trees grow.
It is probably a good moment to reflect that 50 years ago we did indeed catapult 3 blokes up to the nearest other bit space rock we can stand upright on. And it was indeed a milestone in human achievement. But mostly, for me, it reminds us we’re stuck on this particular wobbly spinning ball of molten rock for now. It’s probably better we learn to fly Spaceship Earth before we dream of the stars. And the first thing we need to learn is that we have to stop burning fossil fuels.
