Sir Richard Branson, together with Al Gore, is calling for a team of research scientists to scavenge one billion tons of CO2 a year from the sky. His reward for this solution is to be 25 million dollars. I have submitted my solution as follows:


Dear Sir Richard Branson,
 I would appreciate you forwarding my $25,000,000 prize for coming up with a way to scrub 1 billion metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere per year.

A single mature tree can scrub about 48 pounds of CO2 per year. Forty-eight  pounds equals 21.77 kg and that works out to about 46 trees per metric ton. To scrub 1 billion metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere (each and every year) we only need to plant 46 billion trees and allow them to mature. More than that have been cut down. As a bonus we get a lot of oxygen and shady trees and, if managed wisely, wood products.

If we were to simply replant the equatorial forests we would soon reverse any perceived problem with CO2. It also helps, no matter where one lives, to plant all the trees they can. (If it threatens the water supply then trust the desert plants.)

Trees are lots cheaper than technology. Trees can also provide noble work for a great number of people whose lives can be hugely enriched planting lots and lots of trees. If we just plant one for everyone on earth it would help a lot. The more the better.

My trees already make me carbon neutral.  I don't need to buy phony credits.

                                                                                                           Please send my prize money.
                                                                                                                       John T. Kramer


I am not a team of research scientists.  This is a simple idea that is well proven. No new science is needed.  Even if I never receive my $25 million, it is a solution that can be immediately begun by everyone that cares.  We don't have to wait for panels of environmentalists and politicians to make decisions and delegate our tax dollars.  We can start now!  And we can all begin to benefit now!

How many trees can you plant?

Reference: http://www.virginearth.com/

"Nobody made a greater mistake than He who did nothing because he could do only a little".
                                                                                                    -Edmund Burke 1729-1797