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I think you're missing the point. The forest is literally stored carbon. All of those trees, plants, animals, etc. are all made out of carbon that has been su
by blhack 12y ago
I think you're missing the point. The forest is literally stored carbon. All of those trees, plants, animals, etc. are all made out of carbon that has been sucked out of the air and converted into biomatter.
(Unless I'm really, really misunderstanding something)
- mrfusion 12y agoEvery tree born eventually dies and decays back into CO2 and worse (some methane). I think that's what he's getting at.
- rosser 12y agoOn that kind of time scale, that's only relevant if there are net fewer trees. If there are more, you still come out ahead.
- snowballsteve 12y agoSo if we say, stop with the corn infatuation and plant forests we would at lease give ourselves some breathing room to figure things out for a half century?
- rthomas6 12y agoWell, how much carbon does corn absorb vs. trees?
- kaybe 12y agoThis is actually fascinating to watch. Pieces of some plants can be put into a glass of water and will develop roots and leaves, an amazing amount of mass out of seemingly nowhere. A nice example is cyperus[1], where putting a stem upside-down with the leaves in water will give you a new plant, with just water and air (for a while). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyperus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyperus (only works with some kinds)
- rthomas6 12y agoYes, so following this logic, imagine how much more carbon is stored when a new forest is planted vs. a forest simply maintaining itself. In the first case all the trees, plants, animals, etc. are newly stored carbon, since before there were no trees and now there are.