3 ms·
I didn't do the math on the area (actually I did and it looked plausible, but I'm super jetlagged rn and really don't trust my work :-D ), but there is an awful
by beej71 3y ago
I didn't do the math on the area (actually I did and it looked plausible, but I'm super jetlagged rn and really don't trust my work :-D ), but there is an awful lot of space in the western US.
And trees can be mechanically planted at rates of up to 5000 per hour "at a well-prepared site".[1]
Sadly, the US is becoming increasingly intolerable to trees and forests are dying off.
[1] https://www.fs.usda.gov/t-d/seedlings/planting/mechplan.htm https://www.fs.usda.gov/t-d/seedlings/planting/mechplan.htm
- tgv 3y agoIt's pretty hard to believe a machine can do 5000 per hour. Trees need to be well spaced, but ok. 5000 trees per hour, that's 200M hours or 23000 years. So: build 2000 machines and achieve it in 11 years? Well, there's no factory to build 2000 such machines. It would also require an enormous supply chain, since these machines are going to work over an area of roughly 3000x5000 km. And: it says "a well prepared site". That means leveling the whole of the US. You cannot do that in 10 years, not even in 100. Large parts of the US are unsuitable for planting. Other large parts are already forested: you'd have to remove billions of existing trees to plant 1 trillion. It's sheer lunacy, only to avoid upsetting the Republicans' wealthy friends. Note that I didn't mention fraud and bribery.