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I also did a similar back-of-the-envelop calculation the moment I saw this 103 tons per acre figures. Global CO2 emissions: ~40GT/year Area required: ~600K sq
by __sy__ 7y ago
I also did a similar back-of-the-envelop calculation the moment I saw this 103 tons per acre figures.
Global CO2 emissions: ~40GT/year
Area required: ~600K square miles
This is approximately the size of the entire state of Alaska. Every year.
- RaptorJ 7y agowell, if you convert it all to biochar (say with a 50% volume fudge factor to account for non-carbon components and packing density), you just have to stack an area the size of pennsylvania with 1 meter of biochar each year to zero emissions.
- RosanaAnaDana 7y agoAnd the carbon cost of the energy it takes to convert it all to biochar?
- VBprogrammer 7y agoThe energy and carbon come from burning off the volatile organics from the wood. It impacts the amount of carbon sequestered but it's still a net positive.
- soulofmischief 7y agoThe year is 21XX. Multi-story "tree towers" pierce the skyline in every direction, competing for vertical supremacy with even the tallest of skyscrapers. Solar and other renewable energy sources provide the lighting necessary for the unexposed levels.
- cwkoss 7y agoGrow 100 foot trees, fell them into central points into a teepee like structure. Move soil to the points plant a new tree on top.
- bwanab 7y agoNot every year. Given the article's assertion of the 103 tons per acre per year, your Alaska of Empress trees would do it until they all die and presumably those forests will be maintained into perpetuity.
- _rpd 7y agoWhen the tree dies, it will release 99% of the stored carbon back to the atmosphere. Unless you bury the tree in an anaerobic environment or treat it in some other way, the tree is just a time-delayed release mechanism. New forest can store a buffer in perpetuity, e.g., a new trillion trees can store 133 Gt. But current emissions are > 40 Gt/year, so this is < 4 years worth of emissions.
- duckymcduckface 7y agoMakes me wonder if in the future the solution will be to create synthetic crude and pump it back into the ground.
- tim333 7y agoOr just: >Once the trees reach maturity, farmers harvest their wood for use in houses or musical instruments as in the article. You could make chunky log cabin type buildings to use more. I'd quite like a log mansion.
- plutonorm 7y agoMaybe this is where the oil came from In the first place. A desperate attempt to dump co2 by a doomed civilisation in the deep past. Obviously not, but could make a good short story :)
- youngtaff 7y agoMake charcoal and then bury it
- marcusverus 7y agoIt definitely seems like the ideal solution is bacterial sequestration of carbon into some inert, non-toxic, storable chemical.
- egdod 7y agoPresumably you don’t have to harvest and replant them every year though. I’m guessing it takes them several years to get to the point that they’re full grown.
- JudgeWapner 7y agoand even if this were possible, it requires a significant amount of freshwater to supply that many trees.
- Fargren 7y agoThere is not one solution for Global Warming and CO2 emissions. No silver bullet, just as in software. This is one more tool, which needs to be used when appropriate. But we also need better legislation, technological improvements, and changes in consumption behavior, locally and worldwide. If we look at each of those things and do the math, the answer will be "it's not enough" or "it's too expensive". We mustn't let that be a showstopper. Of course some solutions are really not viable at all and should be ignored in favor of others, but every solution that helps enough (for some definition of enough) needs to be pursued.