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Show HN: Make continuous reforestation part of your daily workflow

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Re: Show HN: Make continuous reforestation part of your daily workflow

#3
One thing I don't see talked about with reforestation, is that it's not enough to just plants trees. They are merely the most visible part of a forest, and alone die much quicker than when they are surrounded by all the constituents of a thriving forest: undergrowth, bushes, other types of trees, good soil, animals, bugs, etc.

Perhaps trees are just handy shorthand for "forest", but I think all the marketing pictures I've seen of reforestation projects are monoculture trees in rows, planted like a Christmas tree farm.

Re: Show HN: Make continuous reforestation part of your daily workflow

#4
post #3

One thing I don't see talked about with reforestation, is that it's not enough to just plants trees . They are merely the most visible part of a forest, and alone die much quicker than when they are surrounded by all the constituents of a thriving forest: undergrowth, bushes, other types of trees, good soil, animals, bugs, etc. Perhaps trees are just handy shorthand for "forest", but I think all the marketing picture…

Yeah, but it's not really about how effective it is, it's about feeling like you're saving the world. I'm not denying there is some sort of impact, but the main goal with things like this is to get on the bandwagon rather than actually have a meaningful impact.

Re: Show HN: Make continuous reforestation part of your daily workflow

#5
Before I sign up for this feel good thing, does anyone know whether it makes any meaningful difference/is enough to make any kind of impact? From looking at CO2 levels, we will be reaching 1000 ug/m^3 in my lifetime (threshold for headaches and other health problems). At 2000 it becomes a serious health hazard. Would money be better spent lobbying for abolishing coal burning power plants and making agriculture more carbon friendly (from what I gather, the biggest contributors to atmospheric CO2)?

Re: Show HN: Make continuous reforestation part of your daily workflow

#6
post #3

One thing I don't see talked about with reforestation, is that it's not enough to just plants trees . They are merely the most visible part of a forest, and alone die much quicker than when they are surrounded by all the constituents of a thriving forest: undergrowth, bushes, other types of trees, good soil, animals, bugs, etc. Perhaps trees are just handy shorthand for "forest", but I think all the marketing picture…

Reforestation actually means the restoration of the natural forest. If this consists of one type of tree, it can look like a monoculture. Reforestation organizations usually try to re-establish a diverse forest, as this is sustainably resistant to parasites and other environmental influences.

Re: Show HN: Make continuous reforestation part of your daily workflow

#7
This is really really cool. Congrats on the launch!

We're working on something similar as our non-profit project [1] built on the integration system for our browser. It will be a free service that lets you connect a few SaaS providers to start (Jira, Github, Gitlab, etc) and automatically plant trees (with some multiple). Stripe is also doing something similar at the payments level. [2]

Two things:

1. These threads always go to a "trees are just virtue signaling" conversation. I think focusing on the trees misses the forrest. Passive allocation of $$ towards good causes through these systems will help teams get involved and associate it directly with their work. This sort of thing is good and feels good. We can focus on better allocation and give people options in the future.

2. There are millions of issues/tasks/sales/PRs/etc closed every day and all of them have a real monetary value for orgs. Im sure we can capture a real % of that. It also moves social responsibility out of closed departments to having everyone in teams involved and contributing frequently and effortlessly. Its exciting!

P.S. I wouldn't normally share this sort of thing on another Show HN but I think we're probably 100% aligned in our goals of getting donations to projects that need it. If I can help in anyway or you'd like to get involved with any of this please email me parham@cloudsynth.com :)

[1] https://cloudsynth.com/social-impact/trees [2] https://stripe.com/climate

Re: Show HN: Make continuous reforestation part of your daily workflow

#8
post #7

This is really really cool. Congrats on the launch! We're working on something similar as our non-profit project [1] built on the integration system for our browser. It will be a free service that lets you connect a few SaaS providers to start (Jira, Github, Gitlab, etc) and automatically plant trees (with some multiple). Stripe is also doing something similar at the payments level. [2] Two things: 1. These threads a…

Ok but your two arguments over how this isn’t just a feel good thing come down to (1) is ok that it’s a feel good thing and (2) it can be a popular feel good thing. How many net acres of forest can we gain and how much CO2 can we remove with this per year, based on your best projections?

I am not saying it’s bad to do this. I would be happy to be a customer. But how do we know this does anything meaningful?

Re: Show HN: Make continuous reforestation part of your daily workflow

#9
It looks a lot of overheads for something that is supposed to be helpful for the environment.

Why not just donate the equivalent of 1-year amount of your [whatever event-triggered actions] directly to one of these Reforestation projects? It saves your time, the cost of running server (albeit not much) while doing the same amount of help.

Re: Show HN: Make continuous reforestation part of your daily workflow

#10

Before I sign up for this feel good thing, does anyone know whether it makes any meaningful difference/is enough to make any kind of impact? From looking at CO2 levels, we will be reaching 1000 ug/m^3 in my lifetime (threshold for headaches and other health problems). At 2000 it becomes a serious health hazard. Would money be better spent lobbying for abolishing coal burning power plants and making agriculture more c…

Avoiding greenhouse gases from the outset is certainly the better alternative. However, it is unavoidable that we will continue to emit massive amounts of greenhouse gases for the next few years. Reforestation is the simplest and most cost-effective "carbon capture technology". At the same time, this restores lost habitat and thus averts another catastrophe: The loss of biodiversity.
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