Quote: "I have read that 1 cubic foot of timber from the oldest and biggest redwood, as an example, when burnt produces more carbon than the tree has stored in its entire existence."
Perhaps your statement could be rephrased, as I'm having trouble making sense of it. The carbon that the tree has stored in its entire existence can be found predominantly in the volume of cellulose fibre (i.e "wood") that constitutes the whole of the tree (including that which is found in its leaves and roots).
That's where the carbon is stored. So if a mere 1 cubic foot of timber were to be burnt (releasing CO, CO2, volatile aromatics, charcoal and carbonate ash) how can this 1 cubic foot produce more carbon than the amount of carbon found in the 100s of cubic feet of timber in the whole tree?
