This Thursday, which is Pine Day, nearly 700 schoolchildren from Viladecans, students between sixth grade and second year of Eso, have helped measure the carbon dioxide storage capacity of the city’s trees, as explained by the Baix Llobregat Town Council in a statement. The initiative is within the Co-Carbon Trees Measurements citizen science project, promoted by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in collaboration with the City Council.
The young people have measured the perimeter and height of almost 1,300 trees in the city in an activity that “will allow obtaining the necessary data for an estimate that is as realistic as possible of CO2 capture by urban trees and thus establish the capacity of capturing this greenhouse gas”.
According to Jordi Mazón, deputy mayor and councilor for the Promotion of Science and Scientific Dissemination of the Viladecans City Council, the data obtained are “essential to know how far we are from the climate neutrality planned by the EU, which cities and the continent must reach in the year 2050”. The students’ work will also help “plan urban strategies to fight climate change and reduce CO2 emissions.”
This data collection work will be repeated annually every March 14 and the same trees will be studied to know the interannual CO2 capture of the town. The documentation will be made available to municipal technicians and teachers from participating schools and institutes, who will thus be able to develop associated educational projects.
Mazón, who has a doctorate in science and a professor in the Physics department at the UPC, assures that “the project can be replicated on any campus and town because its simplicity facilitates citizen participation.”
