From Ceri Reid, cerireid@compuserve.com
Max Trevitt’s letter on the use of trees for scrubbing carbon dioxide is wrong, surely (31 January, p 38). The amount of CO2 released by a dead tree when it decays is equal to the amount it absorbs when alive. So trees just provide short-term sequestration, and any long-term effect would have to derive from a sustained rate of planting far in excess of the rate of tree death, which is not realistic.
