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At least here in Europe most wood that is being used is farmed. Paper and wood are not good long term carbon stores. All paper and wood will release its carbon

At least here in Europe most wood that is being used is farmed. Paper and wood are not good long term carbon stores. All paper and wood will release its carbon back at some point, so they are only temporary stores. Good long term store would be something that lets a large amount of carbon be buried deep and never reenter the cycle.

dr_dshiv 5y ago
What's long term for you? Isn't 200 years pretty good?
- lmilcin 5y ago
  How much of the paper that is being produced today do you think will survive 200 years? Let's be realistic about it. If paper/wood was meant to provide any dent in atmospheric CO2 we would have to be drowning in it. Remember, it is not enough to produce wood. You have to take care that it doesn't burn or rot.
  - BenjiWiebe 5y ago
    It rots and some of it's carbon stays in the soil, increasing the mass of the soil.
- SuoDuanDao 5y ago
  I don't think the average lifecycle of a paper product is anything close to 200 years. Even for books that's pushing it, when you consider how much more toilet or printing paper we use and discard... And bleached paper generally uses enough toxins in its supply chain that it can't be easily composted. Therefore when the fibres are too broken down to be recycled again, it generally has to be disposed of in an anaerobic environment, which produces methane as a byproduct. Now of course, while methane is a powerful greenhouse gas it stays in the atmosphere for a much shorter time than CO2, and it can be captured for energy generation. Even so, while solid wood objects are probably quite good for carbon sequestration, I don't think paper will be unless a few key aspects of it change.
carapace 5y ago
I'm hearing good things about "biochar": > Biochar is charcoal that is produced by pyrolysis of biomass in the absence of oxygen; it is used as a soil amendment. > Biochar is a stable solid that is rich in carbon and can endure in soil for thousands of years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar
- SuoDuanDao 5y ago
  Biochar is great - you can gassify biomass into a methane-rich energy source to generate electricity and then fertilise soil with the carbonaceous residue. It's the kind of technology that gives me hope for future generations.
  - ip26 5y ago
    Even better, combine it with that methane to carbon black process from the other day, and all of the carbon from the biomass is now solid form…

dr_dshiv 5y ago

What's long term for you? Isn't 200 years pretty good?

lmilcin 5y ago
How much of the paper that is being produced today do you think will survive 200 years? Let's be realistic about it. If paper/wood was meant to provide any dent in atmospheric CO2 we would have to be drowning in it. Remember, it is not enough to produce wood. You have to take care that it doesn't burn or rot.
- BenjiWiebe 5y ago
  It rots and some of it's carbon stays in the soil, increasing the mass of the soil.
SuoDuanDao 5y ago
I don't think the average lifecycle of a paper product is anything close to 200 years. Even for books that's pushing it, when you consider how much more toilet or printing paper we use and discard... And bleached paper generally uses enough toxins in its supply chain that it can't be easily composted. Therefore when the fibres are too broken down to be recycled again, it generally has to be disposed of in an anaerobic environment, which produces methane as a byproduct. Now of course, while methane is a powerful greenhouse gas it stays in the atmosphere for a much shorter time than CO2, and it can be captured for energy generation. Even so, while solid wood objects are probably quite good for carbon sequestration, I don't think paper will be unless a few key aspects of it change.

carapace 5y ago

I'm hearing good things about "biochar": > Biochar is charcoal that is produced by pyrolysis of biomass in the absence of oxygen; it is used as a soil amendment. > Biochar is a stable solid that is rich in carbon and can endure in soil for thousands of years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar

SuoDuanDao 5y ago
Biochar is great - you can gassify biomass into a methane-rich energy source to generate electricity and then fertilise soil with the carbonaceous residue. It's the kind of technology that gives me hope for future generations.
- ip26 5y ago
  Even better, combine it with that methane to carbon black process from the other day, and all of the carbon from the biomass is now solid form…