This is a representation of yearly CO2 emission per year by SUV’s vs midsize cars, the 2 piles of soil are used to represent the weight of CO2 produced per year, the pile next to the tree represents the CO2 absorbed by a tree per year.
Gardening soil is used to represent CO2 emissions because of its resemblance partly because of its imagery of pollution and partly due to availability. Piles pf soil are made to look significantly bigger than the cars to emphasis the emission quantities.
Calculations:
Average CO2 emission for SUV’s per year: 5933kg
Average CO2 emission for midsize cars per year: 4243kg
Difference: 1690kg
Typical CO2 amount absorbed by a tree: 22kg
Equivalent number of tree for the difference in CO2 emission: 77
Driving a midsize car instead of an SUV is equivalent to saving 77 trees, in terms of CO2 emissions.
Dataset:
US fuel economy dataset (2020)