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The more water a plant takes, the more CO2 it scrubs from the air, right? That's not entirely bad, I would think.
by credit_guy 9y ago
The more water a plant takes, the more CO2 it scrubs from the air, right? That's not entirely bad, I would think.
- xyzzyz 9y agoNo, that is not how it works. CO2 is only removed from atmosphere if it is sequestered in some solid, like wood — CO2 is not deleted by plants, it’s just transformed to different form. Additionally, plants aren’t really sequestering CO2 from human emissions, unless you bury them underground as you grow them — if you only let it grow without storing it underground, you are only replacing CO2 from deforestation.
- credit_guy 9y agoI know this, but still, I think temporary CO2 removal from the atmosphere is not totally worthless. It buys us more time until more clean energy comes online. And if this time is paid for by rich coffee aficionados, I think that's not a bad deal after all. Oh, and I doubt there's any deforestation going on in California.
- xyzzyz 9y agoToday? Probably not much. Historically? Yes, a lot. You still need to offset for that first, even if happened 150 years ago.
- mrob 9y agoThe majority of the water a plant absorbs is lost to the air as transpiration. Different plants lose different percentages of water this way, so high water use doesn't necessarily mean more CO2 absorption. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transpiration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transpiration