Put some Carbon Dioxide into your Baby’s Crib

Tree branchesNow what kind of a suggestion is that?!? A good one, trust me. It all comes down to global warming and reducing greenhouse gases.

Some background first: When a tree grows, carbon dioxide is processed in the good-old elementary school photosynthesis and stored in the wood as Carbon (while releasing yummy oxygen as a by-product). As long as the wood is not destroyed by biodeterioration (i.e. rotting) or burned, carbon dioxide is not released. As a result, over its lifetime (which can be very long for buildings), wood acts as a natural carbon dioxide storage. While emissions trading might be the latest rage, using wood is a better way to reduce greenhouse gases. The more is actually the merrier here.

The following table, which was just released by the German wood council, shows this very nicely, I think. One caveat: I don’t think, coffins are “made to last”…

Wood
[kg]
Stored C
[kg]
Stored CO2
[kg]
Crib 40 20 72
Sandbox 60 30 108
Door 10 5 28
Desk 45 23 83
Single-Family House
(200 m2)
20.000 10.000 35.990
Furniture for a 3-BR Dwelling 1.400 700 2.519
Flooring (25 m2) 125 63 227
Fence (20 m) 150 75 270
Patio Table 25 13 47
Oak coffin 80 40 144

Source: Holzabsatzfonds, infoholz.de

P.S.: 1 kilogram = 2.205 pounds

P.P.S.: Of, course, don’t put gaseous carbon dioxide into a crib. But you knew that already…

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