Seems a bit suspicious to me. You can't plant a tree in 5 minutes while making sure that it will actually keep growing.
You absolutely can. Professional tree planters can plant a tree in around a minute.
Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change
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Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change
#62Seems a bit suspicious to me. You can't plant a tree in 5 minutes while making sure that it will actually keep growing.
How so? When replanting clear cuts here in Sweden with pine or fir each tree takes a few seconds to plant - you stamp your tool in to the ground which makes a hole, drop the plant down, stomp the ground and then your off to the next. There is also no need to tend to them afterwards (except treatment to deter deer/elks).
Which is a scattergun approach, no? What's the survival rate? I'd guess 1:100 if you're not tending them.
But, in Ethiopia many of those trees are going to need watering, surely? Protecting from people gathering firewood?
Sweden and Ethiopia seem pretty different wrt tree planting?
Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change
#63I wish them luck. I'm a sort of history buff and Ethiopia has an amazing history. It's been a state (in various forms and with different names) for more than 2000 years, in a part of the world where such stability has been scarce. It has its own ancient alphabet. It was the only country in Africa to resist the Scramble for Africa and was only occupied by Italy for less than 10 years (after putting the Italian Army to…
The modern history of Ethiopia (and Africa) is also extremely interesting, the current prime minister (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiy_Ahmed), has turned into a huge reformer ... unexpectedly pushing through huge political and economic reforms
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/08/abiy-ahmed-upe...
Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Planting trees definitely does not hurt and as you say, prevents soil erosion and helps keep ground water which is going to be more and more important as we go. Just don't think this will magically revert global warming, this would be dangerous attitude.
>> Just don't think this will magically revert global warming, this would be dangerous attitude. Maybe but it's relatively cheap, and it can't hurt so why not?
Waste of time, money, and resources. Appearance of fixing a problem without doing so reduces motivation to actually fix it. Global support might wane because "they fixed it".
Seems like there are many reasons not to do a fix unless you know it works to some reasonable extent.
Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't say it's that stable or that the rest of Africa is instable, especially compared to Europe. It's just that Europe industrialized earlier and got to reap rewards that can only come from most simple needs being met easily. In general, the developing countries are mostly "behind the curve", meaning their economic growth mostly wasn't that much lower for most of history, but rather they started somewhat later,…
> I wouldn't say it's that stable or that the rest of Africa is instable, especially compared to Europe. It's just that Europe industrialized earlier and got to reap rewards that can only come from most simple needs being met easily. Europe's industrialization as well as other Western countries heavily depended on the exploitation of third world countries in Asia and Africa, especially after WW2. Sweatshops and slave…
> So who are African nations going to exploit? Each other?
Robots
Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change
#66I'm not a botanist, but if they are experiencing drought then how will these newly planted trees survive? According to the article they are so low on water they are slashing output on their hydro-power system and ceasing electricity exports.
Also not a botanist but often places could experience drought because they have cleared the land and the water runs off to river/ocean. By planting trees, when it does rain the trees can absorb the water and stop the run off.
Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
It took suicide-level conditions in places like Foxconn to get us our gadget at Not that I disagree with the rest of the post, but it's time the suicides at Foxconn story dies a fiery death. https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/07/10/apples-c... The juicy quote: At the time of that spate of suicides Foxconn had nearly 1 million workers in its plants. There were up to 14 suicides (it depends whose count you w…
The difference is those suicides at Foxconn are for one reason only, working conditions. Meanwhile the general suicide rate in China is for any number of reasons. Playing a pure numbers game with peoples lives is distasteful.
How are we to judge it without numbers? While everyone likely could be better in thid spacd focusing efforts disproportionately on the ones better than average already seems irrational, arbitrary, and potentially counterproductive as it turns into "Improving anything in response to complaints is a mistake - giving in only leads to more trouble over doing nothing and waiting for them to go away."
Disturbingly the later anti-pattern has held shockingly true with ethical standards and as infamous actors go on with bad practices for decades while those who improve are subjected to increasingly harsh criticism and boycotts. Ethical Tall Poppyism is a disturbingly common trend.
Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rotting releases their co2. All good when things are in balance - but they're not. To sequester the c02, you need to prevent rot.
Probably a really bad idea but what about chemical treatment to prevent rot.
That would negate the advantage of not requiring extra effort/energy. And decomposition of organic material is required for the rainforest ecosystem to work.
And I'd go with radiation or heating for sterilization.
Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> Just don't think this will magically revert global warming, this would be dangerous attitude. Maybe but it's relatively cheap, and it can't hurt so why not?
Waste of time, money, and resources. Appearance of fixing a problem without doing so reduces motivation to actually fix it. Global support might wane because "they fixed it". Seems like there are many reasons not to do a fix unless you know it works to some reasonable extent.
Again, the issue they want to address is not climate change but retention of soil and improving their regional climate and water cycle.
Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't say it's that stable or that the rest of Africa is instable, especially compared to Europe. It's just that Europe industrialized earlier and got to reap rewards that can only come from most simple needs being met easily. In general, the developing countries are mostly "behind the curve", meaning their economic growth mostly wasn't that much lower for most of history, but rather they started somewhat later,…
> I wouldn't say it's that stable or that the rest of Africa is instable, especially compared to Europe. It's just that Europe industrialized earlier and got to reap rewards that can only come from most simple needs being met easily. Europe's industrialization as well as other Western countries heavily depended on the exploitation of third world countries in Asia and Africa, especially after WW2. Sweatshops and slave…
You realize that the European powers of 17th and 18th centuries "exploited" the Americas to include the U.S and yet here stands the U.S head and shoulders above these "exploiters".