3 ms·
Forests that don’t burn down in regular fires don’t sequester carbon long term either. Trees die and slowly rot on the forest floor, releasing their carbon back
by chongli 5y ago
Forests that don’t burn down in regular fires don’t sequester carbon long term either. Trees die and slowly rot on the forest floor, releasing their carbon back into the atmosphere.
Fossil fuels come from accidents of evolution. When plants first evolved lignin there was nothing around that could decompose it and so it built up in large layers, later to be converted into fossil fuels under pressure. Now there are fungi which can decompose lignin and so there will never be a natural build-up of lignin again.
Our best bet is to grow trees to sequester carbon and then cut them down and use the wood for durable goods such as houses and furniture. If we can take care of this wood to prevent it from rotting or burning then it’ll sequester carbon for a long time. We’ll have to find ways to cut out fossil fuels from the wood supply chain though.
- jjk166 5y ago> Forests that don’t burn down in regular fires don’t sequester carbon long term either. Trees die and slowly rot on the forest floor, releasing their carbon back into the atmosphere. But at the same time those old trees are rotting, new trees are growing. So long as the forest exists (as opposed to say prairie), the carbon is sequestered.
- chongli 5y agoYes, that is true, but forests are limited in capacity by the fraction of earth's surface they cover. Fossil fuels represent hundreds of millions of years of accumulated growth. Against that even a thousand-year-old forest is minimal.