8 ms·

I thought this was pretty interesting. So I looked up how many trees there are per person: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/09/02

I thought this was pretty interesting. So I looked up how many trees there are per person: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/09/02/scientists-discover-that-the-world-contains-dramatically-more-trees-than-previously-thought/?utm_term=.322ec8f37a1a https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/20... The US has 716 per person. Sadly, it looks like China and India are the worst culprits: "Brazil had 301 billion trees (1,494 per person), Canada 318 billion (8,953 per person), and China 139 billion (102 trees per person). Among highly populous countries, India (population, 1.267 billion) had a tree population of only 35 billion, leading to just 28 trees per person." By comparison, the US won't take that long to get to carbon-neutrality. India and China are going to be a burden on the planet for the next century at least. Note that you don't need to plant an additional 1000 trees per person, you just need to have 1000 trees per person to cancel out their emissions.

marcosdumay 8y ago
So, if you plant 3 times your current forest sizes into wood harvesting forests, you would capture all of your CO2 emissions into a solid. That's probably not reasonable (but I'm not sure). Even then, if you double your forest area, and cut the wood from there you'll offset some 20% of your emission already. It's not a silver bullet, but it is something.
- Scarblac 8y ago
  Then add that many trees again each following year.
  - marcosdumay 8y ago
    I assumed the forests were harvested every 4 years. That's average for low quality wood, like what goes into MDF.
    - Scarblac 8y ago
      But the emission compensated was only for 2014.
gandreani 8y ago
Yeah I don't think China or India are catching up any time soon. They're extremely arid regions. China even has a program in place to plant trees along the Gobi dessert to stop it's expansion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-North_Shelter_Forest_Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-North_Shelter_Forest_Pro.... That will help with the number (closer to 200 tree/person) since they plan to plant 100 billion trees by 2050 http://www.theplaidzebra.com/china-is-building-a-great-green-wall-of-trees-to-stop-desertification/ http://www.theplaidzebra.com/china-is-building-a-great-green...
- orwin 8y ago
  It's actually a clever plan. They will destroy ecosystems on the way so its not _perfect_, but it's feasible and will likely work if they fuccessfully find the right kind of tree to start the forest. Greenland is doing it too[1], with a lot of setbacks, but they are starting to recover (albeit slowly) [1]https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/20/climate/iceland-trees-reforestation.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/20/climate/icela...

marcosdumay 8y ago

So, if you plant 3 times your current forest sizes into wood harvesting forests, you would capture all of your CO2 emissions into a solid. That's probably not reasonable (but I'm not sure). Even then, if you double your forest area, and cut the wood from there you'll offset some 20% of your emission already. It's not a silver bullet, but it is something.

Scarblac 8y ago
Then add that many trees again each following year.
- marcosdumay 8y ago
  I assumed the forests were harvested every 4 years. That's average for low quality wood, like what goes into MDF.
  - Scarblac 8y ago
    But the emission compensated was only for 2014.

gandreani 8y ago

Yeah I don't think China or India are catching up any time soon. They're extremely arid regions. China even has a program in place to plant trees along the Gobi dessert to stop it's expansion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-North_Shelter_Forest_Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-North_Shelter_Forest_Pro.... That will help with the number (closer to 200 tree/person) since they plan to plant 100 billion trees by 2050 http://www.theplaidzebra.com/china-is-building-a-great-green-wall-of-trees-to-stop-desertification/ http://www.theplaidzebra.com/china-is-building-a-great-green...

orwin 8y ago
It's actually a clever plan. They will destroy ecosystems on the way so its not _perfect_, but it's feasible and will likely work if they fuccessfully find the right kind of tree to start the forest. Greenland is doing it too[1], with a lot of setbacks, but they are starting to recover (albeit slowly) [1]https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/20/climate/iceland-trees-reforestation.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/20/climate/icela...