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Isn't the plant life carbon neutral? I thought whatever carbon a tree extracts during its lifetime, it releases when it decomposes. Unless we chop it down and s
by mrzv 3y ago
Isn't the plant life carbon neutral? I thought whatever carbon a tree extracts during its lifetime, it releases when it decomposes. Unless we chop it down and store it (and plant a new tree!), the tree doesn't remove much carbon from the atmosphere (long term, on average). Do I misunderstand how this works?
- karthikkolli 3y agoPlants also help increase in rainfall, which reduces CO2 in air by converting it into acid.
- quantified 3y agoBasically all the coal we have burnt was at one point peat bogs. They seem to have been a great success at sequestering carbon for us to eventually release. We've done so, proving your point, but it took a while.
- mrzv 3y agoSo what's the "natural" solution? Create swamps all over the place? How quickly do they remove CO2 per surface area?
- coderenegade 3y agoReforestation, with controlled logging of mature trees to sequester the carbon. Most likely as a building material, given that our current demand for wood is higher than what existing forests can sustainably supply.
- stubish 3y agoA single plant is carbon neutral over its entire growth/decomposition cycle, yes. But the ecosystem as a whole, plants grow faster than they decompose, and it is carbon negative. The excess oxygen production is balanced by animals and fire. So yes, we can make plants more carbon negative by slowing decomposition, and by cutting them down when growth rates slow making room for new plants. Bury the stuff, sink it in the ocean, build wooden things, use it as a component of other manufacturing materials. Just add land and water, which seems to be the problem.
- otterley 3y agoTrees keep growing for a while. Then yes, you chop it down and plant a new one. The amount of CO2 sequestered by a tree annually is well known.
- AnthonyMouse 3y ago> I thought whatever carbon a tree extracts during its lifetime, it releases when it decomposes. Trees can live for hundreds of years. Guess what happens when there are more live trees. > Unless we chop it down and store it (and plant a new tree!), the tree doesn't remove much carbon from the atmosphere (long term, on average). But you in fact can do this. Or chop it down and make furniture or buildings out of it, which themselves can last for hundreds of years. And even if you don't know some cost effective way to keep the dead trees from decomposing, that process itself takes decades after the tree has already grown and died, which at minimum buys us a decent amount of time to figure something out.