Global warming is a serious problem which threatens the way of life of everyone on our planet.

Human industrial activity requires huge amounts of energy. Up until now, this energy has been provided by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas.

Fossil fuels were formed through the sedimentation of dead plant matter over thousands of years. As plants grow, they take carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and store it as carbon in their stems, leaves and trunks. In the process of storing carbon, oxygen is released. Over millions of years, plants have gradually changed the earth’s atmosphere, lowering the amount of carbon dioxide and increasing the amount of oxygen to make it habitable for both animals and humans.

However, when fossils fuels are burned, the efforts of millions of years by green plants are instantly reversed, releasing the captured carbon back into the atmosphere.

Too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has a warming effect on the planet. CO2 molecules absorb infra-red radiation (heat) and reflect it back down toward the earth’s surface. Global warming is sometimes known as the greenhouse effect because the CO2 in the atmosphere acts like the glass roof of a greenhouse, letting sunlight in and preventing reflected heat energy from escaping. If this continues, the planet will gradually get hotter and hotter with devastating consequences for all its inhabitants.

Planting trees can help to slow down or even reverse this process as they are ‘carbon sinks’. The CO2 which was released by the burning of fossil fuels is taken back out of the atmosphere and put back into storage inside the tree. Big trees are better for this purpose than other plants due to their thick woody trunks which hold huge amounts of carbon.