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Does tree planting make an area greener? How is greener measured? Planting trees just to cut them down for lumber doesn't seem very green in that typical sense.

by bmitc 3y ago

Does tree planting make an area greener? How is greener measured? Planting trees just to cut them down for lumber doesn't seem very green in that typical sense. And treating agricultural areas as green doesn't seem accurate either. Agricultural plots decimate the local ecosystem. So maybe a picture of the rectangle from above is literally green, but is it really green in the sense of it promoting healthy ecosystems?

hutzlibu 3y ago
"Does tree planting make an area greener? " In general, yes. "Planting trees just to cut them down for lumber doesn't seem very green in that typical sense." If it is done in a sustainable way, then also yes. Also chinas main motivation is actually to stop the desertification, so they want most the trees to stay. "Agricultural plots decimate the local ecosystem" Also depends. If you bring in irrigation, then you can have green, where there would be none before (but you can have all sorts of other trouble, if your water consumption is not sustainable). So all in all, a true wilderness with old forest is surely way more beautiful and a way more valuable ecosystem, but even a forest plantation is way greener than a arid wasteland.
nonameiguess 3y ago
They mean greener quite literally. Satellite imagery is spectrally analyzed and more of the light reflected from the earth's surface is in a frequency range considered "green." It doesn't mean ecologically friendly. Replacing rainforest with oil palm monoculture is extremely destructive ecologically, but oil palms are just as green as any other tree. Also, if they're analyzing water color as well, large-scale algal blooms can conceivably result in a greener surface, but they're a pretty bad thing because they suck up too much oxygen too quickly out of the water and kill everything else.
cbeach 3y ago
Planting trees and cutting them down is a very effective form of carbon capture (provided the felled trees aren’t burnt) A tree’s dry weight is 50% carbon, captured from the atmosphere. Over a 100 year period, one tree absorbs a tonne of CO2

by bmitc 3y ago

hutzlibu 3y ago

"Does tree planting make an area greener? " In general, yes. "Planting trees just to cut them down for lumber doesn't seem very green in that typical sense." If it is done in a sustainable way, then also yes. Also chinas main motivation is actually to stop the desertification, so they want most the trees to stay. "Agricultural plots decimate the local ecosystem" Also depends. If you bring in irrigation, then you can have green, where there would be none before (but you can have all sorts of other trouble, if your water consumption is not sustainable). So all in all, a true wilderness with old forest is surely way more beautiful and a way more valuable ecosystem, but even a forest plantation is way greener than a arid wasteland.

nonameiguess 3y ago

They mean greener quite literally. Satellite imagery is spectrally analyzed and more of the light reflected from the earth's surface is in a frequency range considered "green." It doesn't mean ecologically friendly. Replacing rainforest with oil palm monoculture is extremely destructive ecologically, but oil palms are just as green as any other tree. Also, if they're analyzing water color as well, large-scale algal blooms can conceivably result in a greener surface, but they're a pretty bad thing because they suck up too much oxygen too quickly out of the water and kill everything else.

cbeach 3y ago

Planting trees and cutting them down is a very effective form of carbon capture (provided the felled trees aren’t burnt) A tree’s dry weight is 50% carbon, captured from the atmosphere. Over a 100 year period, one tree absorbs a tonne of CO2