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Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change

bloomberg.com

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Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change

#91

Post by saalweachter »

neltnerb wrote: post #77
bayesian_horse wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, the issue they want to address is not climate change but retention of soil and improving their regional climate and water cycle.

And it doesn't hurt that it probably slightly improves global warming and planting trees isn't very costly. Especially in places where labor is inexpensive. Why would they not do this is often a question I've been left with after talking to climate change nihilists. No, it won't fix global warming. But it doesn't cost very much, helps their population and economy, and makes a dent in global warming. At least they're…

As software developer, you should also be comfortable with the concept that there is no silver bullet[0] and sometimes you just have to use a lot of lead bullets.[1]

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Silver_Bullet [1] https://a16z.com/2011/11/13/lead-bullets/

Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change

#92

Post by seanmcdirmid »

isostatic wrote: post #9
sriram_malhar wrote: post #4

How were they watered the next week?

Ethipoia, and Africa as a whole, is not Band Aid. Addis Ababa gets more rainfall each year than Washington state.

What part of Washington state? Western, that’s a lot of rain, Eastern, that could be little rain at all.

Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change

#93

Post by itimetrack »

abainbridge wrote: post #29
oblio wrote: post #8

I 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…

Can you recommend a book on the history of Ethiopia? I've been meaning to read about it for a while.

Anything by Dr. Richard Pankhurst ... https://www.amazon.com/Richard-Pankhurst/e/B001ITYX0A/

Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change

#94

Post by chimprich »

orliesaurus wrote: post #83
lmilcin wrote: post #10

Not to discourage, but even reforesting entire land that could possibly be covered in forest will not arrest climate change noticeably. The reason is because forest do not change CO2 levels noticeably, in the long run. The reason is because there is roughly constant amount of carbon in Earths biomass. Planting treas only increases the amonut of biomass by a little bit but has no lasting effect of scrubbing CO2 from a…

This seems like a really well thought out reply: any books on climate change and the way the world is changing that you recommend on this subject ?

Not the OP, but for a scientific approach to dealing with climate change, this book is excellent (also available to read online):

https://www.withouthotair.com/

It's a little out of date on things like the advances made in renewables, but still very good. Also very readable.

Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change

#95

Post by whb07 »

zapita wrote: post #89
whb07 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What. A simple counter point that breaks down everything you said would be the measurement of butter production in the northern states pre bellum (civil war) versus that of the southern states. So no, nothing to do with "unlimited land and free labor".

You're going to have to elaborate, I didn't understand your point at all. I look forward to watching you attempt to demonstrate that appropriation of native land, and free labor from slavery, aren't the pillars on which most wealth in the US was built. I'm sure it will be entertaining.

Sure, butter production in the southern states where there was "unlimited free labor" was roughly 20% of the national output, even though they had 40% of the total dairy cows. So there is your counter point to the argument that with "free labor" things got massively built. Quite the opposite. Its hard to get high productivity from slave labor (go figure).

Anyhow, one has to observe to be first aware of such things like the butter production in the south as compared to the north to realize that the basic argument of "free labor and unlimited lands" doesn't hold up very well.

I'd also like to point that during the peak of the British Empire in the late 19th century up to the early 20th century, the British had by that point outlawed slavery.

Lastly, it is amazing to me that you keep bringing up certain groups of peoples. My sister recently took a genetics test and confirming what I already knew I'm roughly 25% "native" like you keep referencing to. Is this my mic drop moment?

Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change

#96

Post by chimprich »

beachy wrote: post #17
bayesian_horse wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's easier to let them rot in place like it worked in the rainforests for millions of years?

Rotting releases their co2. All good when things are in balance - but they're not. To sequester the c02, you need to prevent rot.

I don't have any figures, but on the assumption that few processes are 100% efficient I'd guess you wouldn't get complete decomposition before the fallen tree is buried. You'd probably get a reasonable, if inefficient, removal of carbon from the atmosphere. Probably better than nothing if you couldn't figure out a way of using the wood more effectively.

Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change

#97

Post by merpnderp »

zapita wrote: post #89
whb07 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What. A simple counter point that breaks down everything you said would be the measurement of butter production in the northern states pre bellum (civil war) versus that of the southern states. So no, nothing to do with "unlimited land and free labor".

You're going to have to elaborate, I didn't understand your point at all. I look forward to watching you attempt to demonstrate that appropriation of native land, and free labor from slavery, aren't the pillars on which most wealth in the US was built. I'm sure it will be entertaining.

The shortest and simplest argument is that the South barely had the funds to prosecute the war while the North not only could fully fund their war efforts, they had access to extensive lines of credit from other nations. The South had to rely upon the largesse of European countries using it as a pawn.

The North lost roughly one soldier for every African slave brought to the South and the least we could do is not imply they were some impoverished slavers who couldn't plant a crop, open a factory, or build rail lines without some help from the South.

Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change

#98

Post by taneq »

thinkingemote wrote: post #37
jordn wrote: post #18

Is there any proof or details of how they did this? 350,000,000 is a lot of trees to source, distribute and plant in one day.

Planting a tree is as easy as planting a tiny seed in the ground. What all these headlines omit is that the majority of things planted won't survive. My back yard has a few thousand tree seedlings growing in it naturally. When we hear of tree planting we picture a mayor or rich person planting a four year old tree in a park. The reality is that trees grow from seed. In the case of commercial forestry all the trees pl…

> When we hear of tree planting we picture a mayor or rich person planting a four year old tree in a park. The reality is that trees grow from seed.

Yeah but trees are hardline r-strategists and produce millions of disposable seeds with a very low survival rate. Planting a seed is in no way equivalent to planting a germinated, sprouted, and developed seedling.

Re: Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought and Climate Change

#100

Post by thinkpad20 »

whb07 wrote: post #70
neuronic wrote: post #24

Earlier 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. 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".

America’s success was the direct result of ethnic cleansing of millions of Native Americans and the backbreaking labor of millions of slaves. The comparison is ridiculous. We were the exploiters.
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