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No More Overseas Travel? - Running out of oil? 1-Nov-2007 At 5:25:12 PM EJ

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One of the key points that I don't see alot of discussion about is the transfer of Carbon from the long term (geologic) carbon cycle into the short term carbon cycle. For instance, buried hydrocarbons in the form of oil and coal etc have been buried for millions of years and are more or less stable. By burning the oil/coal we are releasing it into the atmosphere and adding the pool of carbon available for processes in the short term carbon cycle.

It bothers me that various companies/governements think that by planting trees they are offsetting their carbon emissions. For example a local car company is offering a total carbon neutral car, through a carbon offset program. There is no feasible way that I know of currently that is capable of taking carbon from the short-term cycle and returning it to the geologic cycle.

So by all means plant trees, we certainly need them. But don't do it under the pretense that its "fixing" the problem. Both cows and grass cycle carbon fairly rapidly. So the cows and grass problem is largely related to the short term carbon cycle.