Revealed: The dirty way in which trees are killing each other

The Independent ^ | November 24, 2002 | Geoffrey Lean

[MadIvan]

"Air pollution comes from trees," Ronald Reagan declared more than 20 years ago, soon after the start of his presidency. The remark earned him widespread derision as proof of his ignorance of environmental issues. Even his first press secretary, James Brady, teased him about it. Once when Air Force One was flying over a forest he grabbed the President by the elbow and, pointing down out of the window, said in alarm: "Look, Mr President: killer trees!"

But now new scientific research is showing that the former Hollywood B-movie star was at least partially right all along. For studies in both Britain and the United States have shown that some trees do indeed emit pollution and may even be killing forests downwind.

Took the blighters long enough to realise Reagan knew what he was talking about; wonder if their learning curve will be this slow with GW Bush? - Ivan

The news comes during National Tree Week when the Government and environmental groups combine to extol the benefits of trees to the environment and health. Even more embarrassing, the British research, at Lancaster University, shows that the English oak, one of the very symbols of nationhood, is among the worst offenders.

Others include the poplar, the red and sessile oaks and the crack, goat and white willows. The scientists say: "Most people assume that trees only benefit air quality. In fact, some tree species can have a negative effect and actually help to form pollutants in the atmosphere.''

Research at the University of California at Berkeley, meanwhile, suggests that pollution from oak trees is destroying the pine forests of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They have found that the oaks are producing between 40 per cent and 70 per cent of the ozone that is damaging and killing Jeffrey and ponderosa pines that are the dominant species in the forest.

And it's not only plant life that's at risk: other Californian research, as exclusively reported in The Independent on Sunday earlier this year, shows that ozone can cause asthma.

The detective work that led to the incrimination of trees began after American cities found, to their surprise, that ozone levels failed to decline rapidly after the imposition of anti-pollution measures.

Ozone is formed by the effect of sunlight on nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons, both emitted from car exhausts. It became clear that some trees like oak and poplar were producing huge amounts of a hydrocarbon called isoprene, which dominated in the formation of ozone. Professor Russell Monson of the University of Colorado, who also made a special study of the issue, said: "The problem is that forests around many southern US cities have so many oaks, and isoprene is many times more reactive with the atmosphere than man-made hydrocarbons.

"This meant that, although monitoring programmes showed a significant decline in hydrocarbon emissions from automobiles, ozone did not go away.''

The scientists point out, however, that trees are not the only culprits: isoprene can only form ozone when it combines with nitrogen oxides emitted from cars, industry and power stations. The Lancaster University research also shows that some trees help to clean the air of ozone and nitrogen dioxide.

The best are ash, silver birch, larch, Scots pine, common alder and field and Norway maples. Others – such as apple, holly, sycamore, hawthorn, hazel, lilac and the common elm – also clean the air but less well. The scientists add that cutting down the worst trees will not solve the problem and may even make things worse. For all trees help to cool the air, and rising temperatures cause more ozone to be formed.

What they do recommend is that care should be taken to plant trees that clean the air rather than those that exacerbate the problem.

All trees also help to absorb the carbon dioxide that causes global warming – though again the oak does so less effectively than other species because it grows so slowly – and all also absorb tiny particles emitted by car exhausts that kill thousands of Britons each year through heart disease and cancer. The Lancaster University scientists calculate that doubling the tree cover of the West Midlands, for example, would save 140 lives a year.

[MadIvan]

So when you chop your firewood or buy an oak table, remember, you're doing it for the environment. ;)

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[JRandomFreeper]

care should be taken to plant trees that clean the air rather than those that exacerbate the problem.

Time to plant some oak trees.

/john

[farmfriend]

ping

[Cicero]

I'm sure these people are all Darwinists. Don't they know that "Nature is red in tooth and claw"?

[JZoback]

"and all also absorb tiny particles emitted by car exhausts that kill thousands of Britons each year through heart disease and cancer. The Lancaster University scientists calculate that doubling the tree cover of the West Midlands, for example, would save 140 lives a year."

Wow, amazing how they come up with this stuff.

Car exhausts KILL thousands of Brits annual?

Solution: Ban cars.

Doubling the tree cover anywhere would mean less housing, more density. Probably cost more than 140 lives

[meyer]

The scientists add that cutting down the worst trees will not solve the problem and may even make things worse. For all trees help to cool the air, and rising temperatures cause more ozone to be formed.

OK, with respect to solar energy gain and entropy, can somebody explain how trees really cool the air. Do they cool the air at the expense of absorbing heat into the earth for future warming? Do the reflect heat back into space? Or is it just cooler in shady areas where direct sunlight is blocked by the leaves (which still means that they are either absorbing the heat or reflecting it)? I would like to know.

[MadIvan]

You just have to love environmentalists - the end of everything they study is always the same:

1. Our way of life is bad
2. We have to ditch our modern conveniences
3. Eat more museli

And it makes zero difference what aspect of the environment they study.

Regards, Ivan

[Carry_Okie]

Isoprene is the primary photochemical pollutant of deciduous trees. Isoprenes are common allergens, potentially a direct cause of asthma.

OTOH, coniferous trees usually produce various forms of terpene (hence "terpentine"). Terpenes, though less often allergenic, are carcinogenic instead.

[facedown]

Bump

[The Obstinate Insomniac]

bump

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

[11B3]

"All trees also help to absorb the carbon dioxide that causes global warming."

There is NEVER an environmental report without this standard CO2 disclaimer somehwere in it. Now let's see one of these SOBs prove that it is true! (Nah, couldn't be the output of the sun - certainly mankind causes more temperature fluctuations through his wasteful use of hydrocarbons than the scant few BTUs of energy that the sun provides. F_cking idiots.)

[forester]

Research at the University of California at Berkeley, meanwhile, suggests that pollution from oak trees is destroying the pine forests of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Well that is one way of avoiding the blame for the wacko policies of the environMENTALists. What will they study next...demoncrats are good for trees? Illegal immigration is good for trees? Oaks are destroying pines? What a load of crap!!!

Pines are dying because the forest is too damn thick...why aren't the elitists at Bezerkly studying the effects of a zero cut policy on the national forest? Why? Because science is dead. Political correctness is killing pine trees...not the ozone from oaks. Talk about people who can't see the forest for the trees (/rant)

[sauropod]

Le Ping!

[manfromlamancha]

[michaelt]

Rush, The Trees

There is unrest in the forest,
There is trouble with the trees,
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas.

The trouble with the maples,
And they're quite convinced the're right
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light.

But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made.
And they wonder why the maples
Can"t be happy in their shade?

There is trouble in the Forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the Maples scream "Oppression!"
And the Oaks just shake their heads

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights.
"The oaks are just too greedy;
We will make them give us light."

Now there's no more oak oppression,
For they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw.

[Verginius Rufus]

Oak trees produce ozone? That's the solution to the reported ozone hole over Antarctica: plant more oak trees there!

[Carry_Okie]

I had the great pleasure of watching a few episodes of "Have Gun - Will Travel" the other evening, shot in the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona. To see how those forests looked forty years ago was an amazing contrast to what I saw last summer.

[forester]

Every once in a while I watch an old western from the 1950's for that very same reason. The change in density is really mind boggling.