AGW: An Innocent Question About Trees Shines Light on the Carbon Cycle and Climate Change

 Early in life, I began wondering that since very little of a tree is left behind as solid residue when it’s burned, how is it that the bulk of a tree’s mass is vaporized? 

In that question lies an answer:

https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/where_do_trees_get_their_mass_from

To begin with, half of the mass of wood is carbon that, when burned, combines with atmospheric oxygen and is released as carbon dioxide (CO2): a unit of carbon combines with two of oxygen. Since the mass of oxygen weighs more than three times as much as carbon, burning just two pounds of wood yields over eight pounds of CO2.
[1 pound carbon + 3.6 pounds oxygen + 3.6 pounds oxygen = 8.2 pounds of carbon dioxide]

Note: Trees, as they grow, re-absorb carbon dioxide from the air; but, with increasing deforestation, desertification, soil degradation, et al, CO2 levels in the biosphere are increasing (especially when you factor in the burning of stupendous amounts of previously sequestered carbon in the form of fossil fuels).

This strengthens the greenhouse effect and results in a steadily warming planet. And with each and every year being warmer than the years before, only the blissfully ignorant and the hopelessly naive can fail to see what the future holds.

Search:
‘carbon cycle global warming’

Resource:
“Greenhouse Effect” Physics- 

62 part series. 
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX2gX-ftPVXUNpoyWX5PeZQy5CNlPh0r3

Search:
‘samslair blogspot AGW’