6 ms·

An Introduction to Forest Carbon

52 points by nkurz 4y ago

mistrial9 4y ago
great start on such a crucial topic The United Nations has a forest group, here is one of their docs https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2022-05/unece-fao-sp-51-main-report-forest-sector-outlook_0.pdf https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2022-05/unece-fao-sp-5...
CrypticShift 4y ago
Soil carbon [1] is related to soil health everywhere. We really should look more often, beyond forests, to how our built environment and conventional agriculture are hindering carbon sequestration on a massive scale. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_carbon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_carbon
goldenpreppy8 4y ago
Forests play a critical role in the global carbon cycle, thanks for bringing light to this topic! They are critical by absorbing and storing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Carbon is stored in forests in a variety of forms, including in the trees, soil, and other organic matter. Here are some interesting points... -For example did you know forests are the largest terrestrial carbon sink on Earth, accounting for about 30% of the carbon dioxide absorbed by land-based ecosystems. -Tropical forests store the most carbon per unit area, but boreal forests and temperate forests also play an important role in global carbon storage. -Old-growth forests can store up to three times as much carbon as young forests, due to the larger size and greater density of their trees. -Forests can also be managed to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, which account for about 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. -Forest conservation and restoration can help to mitigate the impacts of climate change by sequestering carbon and preserving biodiversity. -Forests can also provide other climate-friendly benefits, such as reducing the urban heat island effect and providing shade and wind protection. -Forest carbon projects, such as REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation), provide financial incentives for developing countries to conserve and sustainably manage their forests. -Forest carbon offsets, which allow individuals and organizations to offset their carbon emissions by supporting forest conservation or restoration projects, are becoming increasingly popular. However, in my humble opinion, i think its VERY VERY important to ensure that forest carbon projects are carefully designed and implemented to avoid unintended consequences, such as displacement of local communities or biodiversity loss.
- nkurz 4y ago
  I vouched for this to bring it back from being auto-dead, but I'm still not sure if it's a ChatGPT experiment or a new real user. It's a not a bad comment exactly, but it seems slightly off. Goldenpreppy8, can you speak for yourself?
  - tc313 4y ago
    Judging by its subsequent comments, this is almost certainly AI-produced.
    - nkurz 4y ago
      Seems likely, so I unvouched and flagged it. Thanks!
  - Faaak 4y ago
    It gave me "AI generated" wibes before having read your comment too
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
photochemsyn 4y ago
Not a bad write-up, but there's no way forests can significantly sequester fossil carbon from oil, gas and coal combustion at any meaningful rate. Mature forest is mostly in steady-state with respect to total carbon storage, as dead trees decay to atmospheric CO2 at the same rate that growing trees absorb atmospheric CO2: https://academic.oup.com/forestry/article/90/1/125/2605858 https://academic.oup.com/forestry/article/90/1/125/2605858 Limited harvesting of trees for conversion to long-lived products has some additional effect, but eventually even wood-framed homes get attacked by termites etc, so estimates are that well-designed wood homes have a 100-150 year lifetime. If you dump logs in the anoxic waters of the Black Sea, however, they can last 1000s of years (see old shipwrecks). The only realistic way to stabilize the atmospheric CO2 level is to steadily eliminate fossil fuels from the energy mix, bringing various renewable energy sources online at the same rate. Yes, that's an expensive, technologically challenging proposition, but so was building the global fossil fuel infrastructure in the first place. So-called 'carbon markets' in contrast have been entirely ineffective in slowing the rate of atmospheric CO2 growth, it's just a game of deck chairs on the Titanic, with some bonuses for biodiversity conservation. Fundamentally, you can run a modern industrial civilization on renewables - iron and steel, fertilizers and materials, even jet fuel can be produced using carbon and hydrogen sourced from air and water, and with power from sunlight and wind. It's going to take a whole lot of wind turbines and solar panels, however, as well as many new factories. It'll require diversion of a significant fraction of all industrial activity to the task on a global scale.
- nkurz 4y ago
  I'd go farther: I thought it was a surprisingly good writeup for a general audience magazine! Northern Woodlands is interesting, partly because they take a somewhat pro-logging stance for what is essentially an environmentalist nature-oriented publication. We'll see where the next parts of the series go. Your points about the limitations of forests for carbon sequestration are a good reality check, but there are others that are more optimistic that improved forest management can be play at least a regionally significant role. Here's a recent Harvard Forest publication claiming that forests currently offset about 14% of New England's 2020 fossil fuel emissions, a number which could be increased to 21% with better practices: https://harvardforest1.fas.harvard.edu/sites/harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/files/publications/pdfs/Meyer_NEClimateImperative_2022.pdf https://harvardforest1.fas.harvard.edu/sites/harvardforest.f...
sacnoradhq 4y ago
Remember the delusional, happy-clappy "helping" of #teamtrees? Did they make a dent? And let's completely ignore that trees burn and biomass rots because the message of "I'm better than you!" is more important than reality of anthropogenic global warming. https://youtu.be/gqht2bIQXIY https://youtu.be/gqht2bIQXIY Rake America Great Again!

52 points by nkurz 4y ago

great start on such a crucial topic The United Nations has a forest group, here is one of their docs https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2022-05/unece-fao-sp-51-main-report-forest-sector-outlook_0.pdf https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2022-05/unece-fao-sp-5...

CrypticShift 4y ago

Soil carbon [1] is related to soil health everywhere. We really should look more often, beyond forests, to how our built environment and conventional agriculture are hindering carbon sequestration on a massive scale. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_carbon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_carbon

goldenpreppy8 4y ago

Forests play a critical role in the global carbon cycle, thanks for bringing light to this topic! They are critical by absorbing and storing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Carbon is stored in forests in a variety of forms, including in the trees, soil, and other organic matter. Here are some interesting points... -For example did you know forests are the largest terrestrial carbon sink on Earth, accounting for about 30% of the carbon dioxide absorbed by land-based ecosystems. -Tropical forests store the most carbon per unit area, but boreal forests and temperate forests also play an important role in global carbon storage. -Old-growth forests can store up to three times as much carbon as young forests, due to the larger size and greater density of their trees. -Forests can also be managed to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, which account for about 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. -Forest conservation and restoration can help to mitigate the impacts of climate change by sequestering carbon and preserving biodiversity. -Forests can also provide other climate-friendly benefits, such as reducing the urban heat island effect and providing shade and wind protection. -Forest carbon projects, such as REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation), provide financial incentives for developing countries to conserve and sustainably manage their forests. -Forest carbon offsets, which allow individuals and organizations to offset their carbon emissions by supporting forest conservation or restoration projects, are becoming increasingly popular. However, in my humble opinion, i think its VERY VERY important to ensure that forest carbon projects are carefully designed and implemented to avoid unintended consequences, such as displacement of local communities or biodiversity loss.

nkurz 4y ago
I vouched for this to bring it back from being auto-dead, but I'm still not sure if it's a ChatGPT experiment or a new real user. It's a not a bad comment exactly, but it seems slightly off. Goldenpreppy8, can you speak for yourself?
- tc313 4y ago
  Judging by its subsequent comments, this is almost certainly AI-produced.
  - nkurz 4y ago
    Seems likely, so I unvouched and flagged it. Thanks!
- Faaak 4y ago
  It gave me "AI generated" wibes before having read your comment too
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

photochemsyn 4y ago

Not a bad write-up, but there's no way forests can significantly sequester fossil carbon from oil, gas and coal combustion at any meaningful rate. Mature forest is mostly in steady-state with respect to total carbon storage, as dead trees decay to atmospheric CO2 at the same rate that growing trees absorb atmospheric CO2: https://academic.oup.com/forestry/article/90/1/125/2605858 https://academic.oup.com/forestry/article/90/1/125/2605858 Limited harvesting of trees for conversion to long-lived products has some additional effect, but eventually even wood-framed homes get attacked by termites etc, so estimates are that well-designed wood homes have a 100-150 year lifetime. If you dump logs in the anoxic waters of the Black Sea, however, they can last 1000s of years (see old shipwrecks). The only realistic way to stabilize the atmospheric CO2 level is to steadily eliminate fossil fuels from the energy mix, bringing various renewable energy sources online at the same rate. Yes, that's an expensive, technologically challenging proposition, but so was building the global fossil fuel infrastructure in the first place. So-called 'carbon markets' in contrast have been entirely ineffective in slowing the rate of atmospheric CO2 growth, it's just a game of deck chairs on the Titanic, with some bonuses for biodiversity conservation. Fundamentally, you can run a modern industrial civilization on renewables - iron and steel, fertilizers and materials, even jet fuel can be produced using carbon and hydrogen sourced from air and water, and with power from sunlight and wind. It's going to take a whole lot of wind turbines and solar panels, however, as well as many new factories. It'll require diversion of a significant fraction of all industrial activity to the task on a global scale.

nkurz 4y ago
I'd go farther: I thought it was a surprisingly good writeup for a general audience magazine! Northern Woodlands is interesting, partly because they take a somewhat pro-logging stance for what is essentially an environmentalist nature-oriented publication. We'll see where the next parts of the series go. Your points about the limitations of forests for carbon sequestration are a good reality check, but there are others that are more optimistic that improved forest management can be play at least a regionally significant role. Here's a recent Harvard Forest publication claiming that forests currently offset about 14% of New England's 2020 fossil fuel emissions, a number which could be increased to 21% with better practices: https://harvardforest1.fas.harvard.edu/sites/harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/files/publications/pdfs/Meyer_NEClimateImperative_2022.pdf https://harvardforest1.fas.harvard.edu/sites/harvardforest.f...

sacnoradhq 4y ago

Remember the delusional, happy-clappy "helping" of #teamtrees? Did they make a dent? And let's completely ignore that trees burn and biomass rots because the message of "I'm better than you!" is more important than reality of anthropogenic global warming. https://youtu.be/gqht2bIQXIY https://youtu.be/gqht2bIQXIY Rake America Great Again!