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A global reforestation project is how we fix climate change

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Re: A global reforestation project is how we fix climate change

#11

No, ending the extraction and burning of fossil fuels is how we fix climate change. Anything else is just buying time.

All of these are "not only but also" solutions. One thing we need to do is end the extraction and burning of fossil fuels, but that only addresses one type of pollution, and it only gets us so far if the alternative doesn't pollute in some way. (For example, solar and the waste that it generates.) We need to solve the whole ecosystem issue.

Re: A global reforestation project is how we fix climate change

#12

I'm burnt out or depressed with my current career (or something else), but at this moment I would happily pivot to spending the rest of my life trying to help nature. How could I create a business or venture that allowed people to make a livable wage while also working to create a balanced ecosystem between human and nature?

Honestly, tree farming is carbon negative. By continuously growing trees and turning them into lumber you capture carbon and turn it into houses and furniture. Using the profits to buy more land to reforest, then cycling though planting and cutting down trees on a cycle.

Re: A global reforestation project is how we fix climate change

#13

I'm burnt out or depressed with my current career (or something else), but at this moment I would happily pivot to spending the rest of my life trying to help nature. How could I create a business or venture that allowed people to make a livable wage while also working to create a balanced ecosystem between human and nature?

Honestly, tree farming is carbon negative. By continuously growing trees and turning them into lumber you capture carbon and turn it into houses and furniture. Using the profits to buy more land to reforest, then cycling though planting and cutting down trees on a cycle.

Are there methods of tree farming that are focusing solely on carbon capture? For example, is it known that a species of plant that grows quickly captures carbon very efficiently?

Re: A global reforestation project is how we fix climate change

#14

That only "fixes" climate change as long as the trees continue growing and do not die. When dead, trees release their CO_2 that they've sequestered back into the atmosphere due to decomposition. Therefore, assuming those forests stay around, you've only delayed the problem by sinking a fixed amount of CO_2 away into the living biomass of the trees. The only way to make that a permanent sink would be to biochar the tr…

But when the trees die, new trees will grow in the same area, sequestering more or less that CO2 that was emitted from the dying tree, no? Would this not turn the forests into a permanent CO2 sink, at least on a rough scale?

Or do they sequester less than they emit?

Re: A global reforestation project is how we fix climate change

#15
For those who don’t know, there was a reforestation done in US west coast in recent history [1]. Also from the details I have read at least a good portion of it was done by a grassroots effort.

If you drive through the highway that goes through the forest today, it is unimaginable it was a restoration project. There is even a cool observation desk somewhere in the middle

> The forest was replanted from 1949 to 1973 in the largest reforestation project of its kind.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillamook_State_Forest

Re: A global reforestation project is how we fix climate change

#17

That only "fixes" climate change as long as the trees continue growing and do not die. When dead, trees release their CO_2 that they've sequestered back into the atmosphere due to decomposition. Therefore, assuming those forests stay around, you've only delayed the problem by sinking a fixed amount of CO_2 away into the living biomass of the trees. The only way to make that a permanent sink would be to biochar the tr…

Well, the main purpose would be to avoid tree death. And even natural death of trees can be allowed considering that an oak lives around 150 years. Regarding what you say about releasing the co2 they have stored, keep in mind that the tree is not a co2 sponge. It takes co2 and transforms a big chunk of it in other carbon-based components useful to the tree.

I recommend this article that clears some ideas about trees and co2: https://medium.com/the-philipendium/trees-and-carbon-dioxide...

I have to agree with the posted article, even if it is mixing acres and square meters in the explanations.

Re: A global reforestation project is how we fix climate change

#18
post #14

That only "fixes" climate change as long as the trees continue growing and do not die. When dead, trees release their CO_2 that they've sequestered back into the atmosphere due to decomposition. Therefore, assuming those forests stay around, you've only delayed the problem by sinking a fixed amount of CO_2 away into the living biomass of the trees. The only way to make that a permanent sink would be to biochar the tr…

But when the trees die, new trees will grow in the same area, sequestering more or less that CO2 that was emitted from the dying tree, no? Would this not turn the forests into a permanent CO2 sink, at least on a rough scale? Or do they sequester less than they emit?

Once the forest grows to maximum height and density, it stops being a sink. It keeps being a storage though, which is still a benefit.

Re: A global reforestation project is how we fix climate change

#19
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, tree farming is carbon negative. By continuously growing trees and turning them into lumber you capture carbon and turn it into houses and furniture. Using the profits to buy more land to reforest, then cycling though planting and cutting down trees on a cycle.

Are there methods of tree farming that are focusing solely on carbon capture? For example, is it known that a species of plant that grows quickly captures carbon very efficiently?

I've heard this tree grows extremely fast: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulownia_tomentosa

Re: A global reforestation project is how we fix climate change

#20
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, tree farming is carbon negative. By continuously growing trees and turning them into lumber you capture carbon and turn it into houses and furniture. Using the profits to buy more land to reforest, then cycling though planting and cutting down trees on a cycle.

Are there methods of tree farming that are focusing solely on carbon capture? For example, is it known that a species of plant that grows quickly captures carbon very efficiently?

Wouldn't shallow pools of algea in a greenhouse be much more efficient than trees?
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