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Wait a bit Disclaimer up front: I live as if human caused climate change is real, haven't traveled by plane for years, went on holiday abroad three times since

Wait a bit Disclaimer up front: I live as if human caused climate change is real, haven't traveled by plane for years, went on holiday abroad three times since I'm old enough to remember - and this includes honeymoon, I buy used, repair etc etc. So please read me out instead of shouting "JAQ" at me. This cannot be true, can it? I have a simple thought experiment here: Take a globe. Or imagine one. Look at the areas where the oil fields are. It should be small areas outside the Norwegian coast. Small areas in the middle east. Small areas in Ukraine and Russia. Small areas in US, in the Mexican Gulf, outside Brazil etc. Then compare with a single continent. Feel free to reason about it and tell me why I am wrong. Because I am actually interested in the answer, because I live like it matters and it would be great not to have to convince myself to care. And, if your calculations change, feel free to stop demotivating people from trying to help. PS: If you take this as a defense for senseless consumption you are misreading. For those who have given up already I give you another reason: Very often the things I do makes very good sense economically too. I think I have a better, more enjoyable life because I don't waste my money on buying new crap all the time and instead prioritize long lasting goods and experiences and prioritize maintaining what I already got.

gambiting 4y ago
I don't think I understand your actual question. What does the size of oil fields have to do with size of continents? If you are confused about why you'd need to plant a whole continent of trees to offset our CO2 emissions, rememeber(or discover for the first time) that your average oil field(or coal mine for that matter) is a product of literally millions of years worth of carbon deposits - that's why oil is so incredibly energy dense. According to some quick googling one tree absorbs about 25kg worth of CO2 per year. My car emits that much by just driving ~100 miles (using about 10L of petrol in the process). If I do 10k miles per year, that is a lot of trees just to offset emissions of a single vehicle, and there are millions of personal cars out there - and they aren't even the largest source of emissions.
- reitanqild 4y ago
  That is a good answer, thanks! As expected I got a couple of downvotes, but it is worth it for answers like this. Edit: That is 100 trees for each car, isn't it? But the same 100 trees would do the job for the same car next year? Edit 2: Assuming steady state.

gambiting 4y ago

I don't think I understand your actual question. What does the size of oil fields have to do with size of continents? If you are confused about why you'd need to plant a whole continent of trees to offset our CO2 emissions, rememeber(or discover for the first time) that your average oil field(or coal mine for that matter) is a product of literally millions of years worth of carbon deposits - that's why oil is so incredibly energy dense. According to some quick googling one tree absorbs about 25kg worth of CO2 per year. My car emits that much by just driving ~100 miles (using about 10L of petrol in the process). If I do 10k miles per year, that is a lot of trees just to offset emissions of a single vehicle, and there are millions of personal cars out there - and they aren't even the largest source of emissions.

reitanqild 4y ago
That is a good answer, thanks! As expected I got a couple of downvotes, but it is worth it for answers like this. Edit: That is 100 trees for each car, isn't it? But the same 100 trees would do the job for the same car next year? Edit 2: Assuming steady state.