I want a rebate on my Oxygen Points, please!
Let’s imagine for a minute that you can measure a tree. Now, I don’t mean in height, weight, or cordage but in oxygen output. Just liking burning a few cords of wood or coal put’s CO2 back in the atmosphere so does growing a tree put O2 back in the atmosphere. The tree is a magnificent machine. Sucks up the CO2 and transforms it into O2 and, of course, a considerable amount of shade and, eventually, some beaver dams, at least in this county.
Now, let’s imagine we could measure that effectiveness accurately. Let’s say, just as accurately as those folks that measure the effect of CO2 on the atmosphere and, subsequently, our carbon footprint. We could come up with an oxygen footprint. If we gave units to this mythical oxygen footprint we could come up with, say…one oxygen point for every 100 square feet of green. One hundred square feet of trees equals one oxygen point. One hundred square feet of soybeans equals 1 oxygen point. One hundred square feet of asparagus, which should not be grown in the first place but we’ll give it equal billing, gives you one oxygen point.
Providing you haven’t lost interest in this long ago, here are some foundational measurements you might need and a couple of examples:
• 1 acre = 43560.174 square feet or 435.6 units per acre (using our 100 square feet equals one unit system) so every green acre you own gets you 435.6 units.
• Heino Husqvarna bought 40 acres of hunting land up on the Echo trail in 2001 and just left it growing poplar, pine, and tag elder, plus two small swamps. He gets credit for 435.601 units per acre or 17424.04 units. He lives down around Duluth on a one acre plot that, taking his house and gravel drive out of the count, gives him an additional .83 acres to his credit or 361.548 units. Added to the hunting land credit Heino ends up with 17,785.588 units on his account.
• Jens Jonserud was just satisfied to buy a place in Big Falls after he married Olga Brunemeier back in ’79 but it’s a pretty good sized place. He worked out at the mill but just kept his yard going good with plenty of lawn and a few trees so he ends up with just .27 acres to gain his oxygen points. Jens and Olga get only 117.612 oxygen points.
• The Metro Dome…well tough luck…they put in all that concrete and covered the top with Teflon so they don’t get much help. There’s a couple of trees there on the north side and a little more green around there but, well, let’s give them an acre of oxygen points so they end up with 435.601 oxygen points. Next year they’ll be better off with the new stadium.
Now, I admit that I’m not a mathematician nor have I calculated in the difference in the number of days in the growing season so the Metro Dome might get a couple weeks of “green” season more than Heino’s Echo Trail property so they will get a few more points when the numbers are crunched by the Land Oxygen Points Procedure Organization (LOPPO). Which brings us to what could be done with these points now that they are out in the public domain and universally accepted (Please pardon the exaggeration, after all this is political and one must exaggerate or people just won’t trust the accuracy of your statement).
Just as Cap and Trade (C&T) calculates out the carbon points for, let’s say, North Star Electric so could the Oxygen Points be calculated throughout the region for which they supply electricity. Then those points can be credited back to the consumer in the form of lower cost electricity or a split occur in which North Star gets one half the credit to whittle down their C&T while also reducing the consumer’s cost.
Just think of how that would help a company located in a rural area on an eighty acre plot that is 90 percent green. How about a farmer that supplies 460 acres of oxygen points (minus the burps of the cows of course)? What if it was a mill that owned timber land that they were using wisely to maintain a good oxygen footprint? How about a whole county that counted their public county land as a benefit to the county residents and were able to reduce the cost of electricity to each household?
OK, I know there may be holes all over this ramble but it does seem strange that I can live in the heart of a wilderness (compared to Hennepin County anyway) that is cranking out an admirable oxygen footprint while someone is putting the squeeze on my electric company by only calculating in the carbon footprint. Of course, you may feel free to set me straight if the oxygen footprint is already calculated in with the same accuracy as the carbon footprint and you have my apologies in advance.
arsttn, Koochiching County Resident
