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Interestingly, planting 1 trillion trees all at once would decrease the albedo of the earth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
by mojoe 11y ago
Interestingly, planting 1 trillion trees all at once would decrease the albedo of the earth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo), increasing warming in the short term. I wonder how long the trees would have to exist before the scrubbing effect on carbon dioxide would outweigh the albedo change?
- seizethecheese 11y agoDepends on what the trees are shading? They couldn't be much worse than concrete I imagine...
- sbierwagen 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo#Terrestrial_albedo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo#Terrestrial_albedo Albedo of a conifer forest is 0.08 to 0.15, albedo of new concrete is 0.55. The climate change effects of reforestation are addressed later on in the same article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo#Trees https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo#Trees
- thomasahle 11y agoOf Asphalt it's only 0.4 - 0.12 though (from your link)
- thomasahle 11y ago0.04
- devishard 11y agoGeez, albedo is a topic I didn't know existed until just now, but which is clearly a complex enough topic for hundreds of people to spend their entire lives studying it. Super cool.
- eru 11y agoIt gets even more complicated, because of clouds..
- CalRobert 11y agoThe fantastic SimEarth had a great daisyworld simulator that illustrated the concept well. You had two species of daisies, light and dark, and their balance had a huge effect on the world. Of all the Sim games, that's the one I'd most like to see get an update (though "Planet melting? pay $29.99 for in-game carbon credits!" would be an off-putting business model).
- lake99 11y agoThe albedo shouldn't decrease with more trees. More trees, more clouds. And clouds are the reason why the earth has such a high albedo.