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I understand this concern but I was blown away when I heard this fact which I wanted to share with you. > Certain species of bamboo can grow 910 mm (36 in) wit

I understand this concern but I was blown away when I heard this fact which I wanted to share with you. > Certain species of bamboo can grow 910 mm (36 in) within a 24-hour period, at a rate of almost 40 mm (11⁄2 in) an hour (a growth around 1 mm every 90 seconds, or 1 inch {2.54 centimeters} every 40 minutes). At least it's better than no trees at all.

lostlogin 5y ago
While it makes for impenetrable forest (scrub? Bush) when mature, you’d have to imagine that the acreage requires to sequester meaningful amounts of carbon would be absolutely vast. Bamboo just isn’t that dense.
- mikeg8 5y ago
  My personal experience of having bamboo on my property is that it seems incredibly dense. Bamboo is a actually a grass and has root systems similar to grasses, it grows very close together. here is another resource about the carbon sequestration of bamboo: https://drawdown.org/solutions/bamboo-production https://drawdown.org/solutions/bamboo-production
mikeg8 5y ago
Another interesting tidbit: bamboo is actually a grass, not a tree.
kisamoto 5y ago
That's really cool. As long as we don't end up with monocultures (also bad for the environment) they should be part of the solution! We could plant fast growing bamboo and turn it into biochar/bio-oil? Or use it for sustainable housing?
jeffbee 5y ago
Bamboo is something like 5 meters per kilo. You don't really care about the length. You care about the mass.
slavik81 5y ago
The giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) is the fastest-growing plant in the world, living mostly on the Pacific coast, off the shores of California and British Columbia. It had economic value at one point, so kelp farming was a major industry in the early 20th century. Though, I suspect if CO2 is all that matters, simple algae is easier to manage than large plants. Sadly, the natural kelp forests are in really bad shape. I haven't seen the stats on giant kelp, but the bull kelp forests have been practically been wiped off the map by sea urchins and warming waters over the past decade or two. The natural kelp forests probably didn't provide much in terms of CO2 absorption, as dead plant matter would decay quickly in the ocean, but it's been a huge loss for aquatic wildlife.

lostlogin 5y ago

While it makes for impenetrable forest (scrub? Bush) when mature, you’d have to imagine that the acreage requires to sequester meaningful amounts of carbon would be absolutely vast. Bamboo just isn’t that dense.

mikeg8 5y ago
My personal experience of having bamboo on my property is that it seems incredibly dense. Bamboo is a actually a grass and has root systems similar to grasses, it grows very close together. here is another resource about the carbon sequestration of bamboo: https://drawdown.org/solutions/bamboo-production https://drawdown.org/solutions/bamboo-production

mikeg8 5y ago

Another interesting tidbit: bamboo is actually a grass, not a tree.

kisamoto 5y ago

That's really cool. As long as we don't end up with monocultures (also bad for the environment) they should be part of the solution! We could plant fast growing bamboo and turn it into biochar/bio-oil? Or use it for sustainable housing?

jeffbee 5y ago

Bamboo is something like 5 meters per kilo. You don't really care about the length. You care about the mass.

slavik81 5y ago

The giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) is the fastest-growing plant in the world, living mostly on the Pacific coast, off the shores of California and British Columbia. It had economic value at one point, so kelp farming was a major industry in the early 20th century. Though, I suspect if CO2 is all that matters, simple algae is easier to manage than large plants. Sadly, the natural kelp forests are in really bad shape. I haven't seen the stats on giant kelp, but the bull kelp forests have been practically been wiped off the map by sea urchins and warming waters over the past decade or two. The natural kelp forests probably didn't provide much in terms of CO2 absorption, as dead plant matter would decay quickly in the ocean, but it's been a huge loss for aquatic wildlife.