Our Forests and Farmlands are Saving the World

The United States produces 5,752,289,000 tons of CO2 each year.
All of North and South American combined produce about 7,800,000,000 tons of CO2 per year.

Plantlife NEEDS CO2 (carbon dioxide) to survive.
Plants take in CO2 and release oxygen.
So we NEED plants to survive.

So how much plantlife do we have in this country?
The USA is about 3.8 million square miles.
One square mile is 640 acres.
So, 3.8 million square miles is 2,432,000,000 acres.
One third of the US is forested.
One third of 2.4 billion acres is about 811 million acres.
An acre of trees consumes about 2.6 tons of CO2 per year.
So, 811 million acres of trees consumes 2,108,600,000 tons of CO2 per year.
That is about 37% of our total CO2 output.

The United States also has about 900,000,000 acres of farmland.
Note: grass (or pasture) consumes more CO2 per acre than trees.
Our farmlands are fairly evenly divided between cropland and pastureland, with small amount wooded, and very small percentage is homes and other farm buildings.
Now, while croplands are not always covered with crops, pastureland is always covered with something “green”.
And, since grasslands (and croplands) consume more CO2 per acre than trees do, let’s call this a wash and say that each acre of “farmland” also consumes about 2.6 tons of CO2 per acre per year.
So, 900 million acres of “farmland”, at 2.6 tons per acre, consumes another 2,340,000,000 tons of CO2 per year.
That is about 41% of our total CO2 output.

So, our forests and farmland combined consume 4,448,600,000 tons out of 5,752,289,000 tons of CO2 produced each year.
That is about 77% of our total CO2 production.

The remaining 23%, or 1,303,689,000 tons, is consumed by all the rest of the vegetation growing in our cities, towns, municipalities, that are NOT forests or farmland.
And, keep in mind, the lawn in your backyard consumes more CO2 per year than the same size yard full of trees.

But here’s an even bigger truth.
All of North America (9,540,000 square miles) and South America (6,890,000 square miles) combined is 16,430,000 square miles.
At 640 acres per square mile, that comes to 10,515,200,000 acres.
If 77% of this is covered with forests and farmland (as the US is), that is 8,096,704,000 acres.
This 8 billion acres of vegetation consumes, at 2.6 tons per acre per year, over 21 billion tons of CO2 per year.

In summary, both North and South America combined produces less than 8 billion tons of CO2 per year.
Whereas, the forests and farmlands in North and South America combined CONSUME over 21 billion tons of CO2 per year.

Looks like the rest of the world “owes” the New World some “carbon credits”.

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Tags: Carbon dioxide, farmlands, forests, United States