To grow one tonne of timber it has been calculated that a tree uses 55 kilos of CO2 (the greenhouse gas) and gives off 40 kilos of oxygen. In one year an average tree consumes 9.1 kilos of cCO2 (the amount emitted by a car over 11,500 miles), and exhales enough oxygen to keep a family of 4 breathing for a year.
Other building materials i.e. PVCu, aluminum, steel and concrete are a great drain on the Earth's resources. The production of these other building materials involves the use of finite resources.
Aluminum and steel-ore has to be dug out of the ground before it is smelted. PVCu-oil is pumped out of the ground and processed to produce plastic and for concrete and aggregate the base material has again to be mined from the ground. The processing of these materials uses vast quantities of fossil fuels all of which produce carbon dioxide etc.
Furthermore, timber extraction is beneficial to the environment. Planting trees for timber harvesting actually helps to reduce the greenhouse effect. When seedlings are planted they absorb carbon dioxide and expel oxygen in the growing process. There is a lot of concern about the amount of CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere, but if more timber was used, more trees would be planted and more carbon dioxide would be soaked up. |