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> Two leaves will absorb more CO2 than one leaf Trees don't absorb CO2 just by existing- they absorb CO2 by growing. The carbon from the air is converted into

by mabbo 7y ago

> Two leaves will absorb more CO2 than one leaf Trees don't absorb CO2 just by existing- they absorb CO2 by growing. The carbon from the air is converted into structure, body of the tree. When the tree stops growing, the CO2 stops being absorbed. Cutting down the tree and using the wood for long-term storage contains all that CO2. Planting new trees means growing trees that absorb more CO2 from the air.

pvaldes 7y ago
Read about plant physiology
- pvaldes 7y ago
  Plants not only make wood, they make nectar, sugars, ambar, they make alkaloids, and they make thousands of seeds also. Some hard nuts remains have been found after 3000 years. They will survive for as many time than wood or longer. A big walnut can produce 160 Kg of nuts each year. A sequoia can produce a number of pine cones that I can't quantify, but would be probably measurable in thousands of Kg/year. Easily Even more, upper members of the Plant kingdom produce a very special substance. One of the most inert polymers found in the nature that is much more desirable than wood for our needs of stabilising climate. Its degradation time can be measured in millions of years and appears fosilized or semifosilized in all continents and all ecosystems, with or without trees. Is called sporopollenin, and is the extra hard and waterproof material that makes the outer layer of pollen grains. You don't need a tree to produce really hard pollen. A humble daisy can sequester carbon in a powder that will easily remain structurally intact for the next 1000 years. Everybody that has a garden and has cultured a big conifer knows that males of this creatures release copious amounts of the substance each year. Also old plants. _Specially_ old decaying plants that are about to die and invest all its reserves on reproduction. Maybe its time to start quantifying it. Therefore your statement that plants only sequester CO2 when they grow is clearly false. If your maths and calculus do not include nuts and pollen, and do not include soft herbs, flowers and annual weeds they are incomplete, and most probably wrong, IMHO.

by mabbo 7y ago

pvaldes 7y ago

Read about plant physiology

pvaldes 7y ago
Plants not only make wood, they make nectar, sugars, ambar, they make alkaloids, and they make thousands of seeds also. Some hard nuts remains have been found after 3000 years. They will survive for as many time than wood or longer. A big walnut can produce 160 Kg of nuts each year. A sequoia can produce a number of pine cones that I can't quantify, but would be probably measurable in thousands of Kg/year. Easily Even more, upper members of the Plant kingdom produce a very special substance. One of the most inert polymers found in the nature that is much more desirable than wood for our needs of stabilising climate. Its degradation time can be measured in millions of years and appears fosilized or semifosilized in all continents and all ecosystems, with or without trees. Is called sporopollenin, and is the extra hard and waterproof material that makes the outer layer of pollen grains. You don't need a tree to produce really hard pollen. A humble daisy can sequester carbon in a powder that will easily remain structurally intact for the next 1000 years. Everybody that has a garden and has cultured a big conifer knows that males of this creatures release copious amounts of the substance each year. Also old plants. _Specially_ old decaying plants that are about to die and invest all its reserves on reproduction. Maybe its time to start quantifying it. Therefore your statement that plants only sequester CO2 when they grow is clearly false. If your maths and calculus do not include nuts and pollen, and do not include soft herbs, flowers and annual weeds they are incomplete, and most probably wrong, IMHO.