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The amount of carbon which could be sequestered, or otherwise, in all the buildings of all of the world is a miniscule portion of the Earth's total carbon budge

• reitzensteinm 14y ago
  You're being disingenous here. Human emissions are also a miniscule proportion of the Earth's total carbon cycle. In the United States in 2008, CO2 emissions per capita were 17.5 tonnes. That equates to roughly 4.76 tonnes of carbon, which requires 9.53 tonnes of wood to capture (wood is about 50% carbon). If the US could grow 9.53 tonnes of wood per capita per year, and sequester it, it would be carbon neutral. For comparison, US wheat production in 2008 was 218kg. The US has 190 million acres of forests, which according to the EPA grow about 2 tonnes per year until they mature at ~200 tonnes (probably not linearly). This is only 1.22 tonnes per person per year, even if you devoted all the current US forests to the task. However, tree farming could likely grow a significantly higher tonnage of wood per year with the same land. Using 9.53 tonnes of wood per year, if you've got access to it, is actually not that hard. A decent sized house can easily weigh 100-200 tonnes, and current home builds are trying to minimize weight (and thus cost). It's not a silver bullet, but it would make a noticeable difference to the bottom line. I haven't listed references here (I'm on my laptop and it's quite cumbersome), but I urge you to do back of the envelope calculations before you talk about this stuff. There's already way too much misinformation flying around.