Published in Dwarka Express on 14.1.24

Recently we came across a viral video wherein the person chatting to a group of senior citizens in a park, emphasizes the need for planting 14 saplings to compensate CO2 exhaled during the whole life. Our curiosity grew multifold as this video was repeatedly forwarded. We were curious to view more details about the idea. After a frantic google search, we could find that it is one Parvin Bhagwat. We landed at his website as well as his YouTube channel. Parvin Bhagwat has posted a full video about his mission in his YouTube video captioned ‘Project 14 trees: What, Why and How’. This YouTube video was released 3 years ago. Further we learnt that the organization founded by Parvin, namely, ‘14 trees foundation’ is a charitable organization, dedicated to building sustainable carbon-footprint-neutral ecosystems through re-forestation. Pravin is an entrepreneur, technologist and an academic. During weekends he works on small scale projects such as green living, eco-restoration and social entrepreneurship. We further searched for more information about the efficacy of his mission. The question at large was whether planting 14 trees would compensate the carbon dioxide produced by a human being.

As per studies, a man is estimated to exhale an average of 0.9 kg of carbon dioxide per day as per studies. This works out to roughly 300 kg per year, whereas a reasonably grown tree absorbs 22 kg of carbon dioxide in a year. This means that we need 14 trees to absorb the exhaled carbon dioxide. According to Pravin Bhagwat, instead of quoting the global carbon dioxide emission has reached 38 billion metric tons it is better to tell a person that his exhaling CO2 pollutes air but the same could be compensated by planting 14 trees in his lifetime. However, no theory is without a rider or a counter. On the flip side, a sapling planted today may not be equal to a well grown tree and absorb 22 kg of carbon from day one. Secondly, in reality, all the eight billion global citizens are not going to plant 14 saplings each. Moreover, even if a person plants a tree, he may not have time to nurture it. Thirdly to compensate the already exhaled carbon dioxide, there is no solution. Fourthly, the calculation does not consider the vehicular and industrial emission. Last but not least, saplings are planted on one side while on the other, well grown trees are felled to accommodate developmental projects. All said and done, planting 14 saplings is a reasonably achievable target and everyone can accomplish the mission, ‘Plant 14 saplings & exhale CO2 lifelong’.