Global warming is the unnatural increase in the average global temperatures caused by the release of greenhouse gases.

What is a greenhouse gas?

A greenhouse gas is a gas that when released into the atmosphere traps heat radiated by the Earth and prevents the Earth from releasing the heat into space. It is good that all heat is not released into space so we can stay warm. However, by releasing greenhouse gases an excess of heat is captured by the Earth causing the Earth to begin to overheat.  

Why are they called greenhouse gases?

These gases are called “greenhouse gases” because they function like a greenhouse used to grow plants. A greenhouse traps heat to keep temperatures warm inside so plants are at the perfect temperature to grow.

Carbon dioxide is a gas that is released when we burn coal, oil, trees or any other material to produce energy; it’s also the gas we produce by just breathing. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and is one of the major contributors to global warming.

Carbon dioxide acts like a blanket around the Earth. However, unlike you, the Earth cannot remove this carbon dioxide blanket when it’s too hot. As a result the Earth continues to get hotter and hotter because the carbon dioxide isn’t being removed from the Earth’s atmosphere. We need a way to reduce the carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere so the Earth can return to normal temperatures.

Carbon offsetting is the process of actively removing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to offset the carbon dioxide being emitted by an alternative action you perform so that the total amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere stays the same.

One example would be:

If I drive my car (that runs on gasoline) and produce 48 pounds of carbon dioxide, I can offset that carbon dioxide by planting a tree which will remove that 48 pounds of carbon dioxide over a year. Thus, over the span of that year the overall atmospheric carbon dioxide level is the same.

Since the industrial revolution humans have drastically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the environment. How much is a drastic amount? Since humans started using combustion as a power source roughly 375 billion tons of carbon dioxide has been released.

If that were people, it would be 50 times the number of people on the planet! (The global population is about 7.5 billion people)

If that were miles, it would be 61 round trips from Earth to Pluto (a one way trip to Pluto is 3.67 billion miles)!

If that were pounds that would be the combined weight of a million: blue whales, African elephants, killer whales, great white sharks, giraffes, brown bears, crocodiles, tigers, lions, gorillas, hippopotamuses, and whale sharks each!!!!!

Hopefully you get the drift, it’s an ALARMING amount of carbon dioxide being released.

By releasing so much carbon dioxide you’re causing the earth to heat up at irregular rates. Think of it like this:

Pretend it’s a hot day, it’s 90 °F, you’ve been working in your room for hours, your A/C is broken, and you finally realize that it’s HOT. Since you’ve been in your room for so long all that trapped heat is making you feel HOT and then you start sweating and the more you sweat the HOTTER you feel and the cycle continues over and over until you can’t take it anymore. Wouldn’t it be great if you could open that window to release all that built up heat? Hopefully, you do.

Well, in a way that’s what the earth is experiencing right now. This large amount of carbon dioxide being released is essentially making it increasingly difficult to open that window so you can’t release as much heat which results in the room staying hot. Because carbon dioxide is great at absorbing heat it is preventing the earth from releasing heat to outer space and in turn causing the earth to slowly warm up just like you were warming up in your room.

Our Tree4All trees are an excellent choice of a tree. These trees grow quickly (5 to 8 feet per year) and dense allowing them to take up a considerable amount of carbon dioxide. These trees can grow up to 60 feet tall, 30 feet wide and they have a life span of around 50 years.

What makes the Tree4All tree the top choice for a tree, however, is that it is a hybrid tree that has been designed to be extremely resistant to disease, and it can grow all over the mainland of the United States spanning from coast to coast. (Check out our neat map below!) These trees are troopers! A full grown Tree4All tree can remove up to 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. Yes, we know it won’t remove all the carbon dioxide but it’s a good start and every tree helps!

Areas you can grow the Tree4All tree are any regions of the United States in color (regions 3 to 9). Sadly they don’t grow well in Hawaii and Alaska ☹.

Every tree that is planted can be help remove up to 48 pounds of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This helps reduce the amount of insulation the Earth is experiencing and can help reduce the amount of global warming that is happening.