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Does this mean that any tree planting efforts would need to be dramatically increased to have the desired impact on CO2 levels?
by asadotzler 11y ago
Does this mean that any tree planting efforts would need to be dramatically increased to have the desired impact on CO2 levels?
- rrss1122 11y agoCould also mean we could need to plant less trees than we thought. At the very least, the models have to be updated to use a number of trees an order of magnitude higher than we previously thought.
- imauld 11y agoNo. While there are more than we estimated that doesn't mean there are enough. A similar story was on the front page recently that reported that since humanity became "global" there has been a 47% reduction in the number of trees in the world.
- Kip9000 11y agoTrees take more carbon out in the growth phase. So we need fast growing trees, then cut them down and bury them and repeat until profit.
- tracker1 11y agoDoes it have to be buried? can it be used?
- tomjakubowski 11y agoBurning the older trees defeats the point of planting them in the first place (to remove carbon from the atmosphere). You might transplant them somewhere for aesthetic purposes, but then they're taking up space that could be used to grow young, carbon-hungry trees. I guess that leaves turning them into lumber.
- tracker1 11y agoI said used, not burn... paper, construction, and many other uses for wood beyond burning. Since lumber, and even paper would eventually mean burying most likely, that would be a decent usage... though wooden structures have their practical limits, I don't think we're there yet.
- jandrese 11y agoYou offset some of the carbon savings with the processing costs, but as long as you use the wood for long term construction or for stuff that will be buried in a landfill it should work.
- afarrell 11y agoPaper is going to end up being burned or in landfills. If it ends up in landfills it could* become methane which is a far worse greenhouse gas than CO2. * Someone who knows more about decomposition might tell me I'm wrong about the processes that create methane.
- bonobo3000 11y agoThis brought up an interesting question - how much paper is recycled vs trashed? Atleast in the US, 67% of paper was recycled in 2013. So 2/3rd isn't burned or compacted. Thats pretty impressive.