Show HN: Make continuous reforestation part of your daily workflow • Hacker News Board

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

#101

Post by missedthecue » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 12:27 AM UTC

a_humean wrote: post #34

exdsq wrote: post #25

I wonder if it’d be better to not try and prevent global warming, but instead spend money and research on preparing for it. Can someone tell me why this is a terrible idea?

Its too late to "prevent" global warming. We had our chance in the 80s and 90s. We are now at stage of mitigation and trying to curve the trend away from the worst case scenario ("just" 2C warming instead of 4C). If we don't change track then its projected by end of the century large parts of the world will be simply uninhabitable for human populations (wet bulb temperature too high, desertification, and flooding) le…

The UN Climate Panel finds that if we do nothing, the total impact of climate in the 2070s will be equivalent to reducing incomes by 0.2-2 percent. Given that by then, each person is expected to be 363 percent as rich as today, climate change means we will “only” be 356 percent as rich.

Meanwhile, the US wants to spend $500 billion per year and the EU 25% of all government revenue on fighting it, annually. You sure that's orders of magnitude difference?

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

#102

Post by contingencies » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 1:15 AM UTC

DigitalHumani wrote: post #76

mdoms wrote: post #54

If you want to plant a tree, plant a tree. I have no faith that these jokers will ever actually plant the ordered number of trees.

Hi, Jonathan here, founder of the RaaS (Reforestation as a Service) at DigitalHumani.com We only work with trusted reforestation organizations (6 so far) and you can choose which one to work with. Planting a tree is not that complicated, I agree, but for lots of us working in cities, it is not that easy. Finding the right species, buying the shovel and the tree, taking care of it, etc. More complicated to have tens o…

I truly applaud the idea. More hackers should work on schemes to support bioremediation. However, qualifications are important. For example, fruit tree orchards are typically monocultures or near monocultures, use lots of water, encourage fertilizer and pesticide use, and are rarely planted in natural distribution. A strong indicator is that, after planting, if you have to "take care of it" it's in the wrong place.

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

#103

Post by quesera » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 1:32 AM UTC

jk7tarYZAQNpTQa wrote: post #79

IngvarLynn wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can plant a tree but You can't plant a forest. You can't fix a failed state. But You can educate yourself (and others) on what the hell is happening with this world and vote for representative that cares.

> You can plant a tree but You can't plant a forest. Of course you can plant a forest. But there's no need to. If each one of us plant 1 tree per month, we would be planting thousands of forests as a result of our team effort. We need an international Tree Planting Day. And we need to celebrate the fuck out of it.

> We need an international Tree Planting Day.

Done!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbor_Day

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

#104

Post by hedora » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 1:59 AM UTC

Panino wrote: post #57

hedora wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, the carbon those trees sequester needs to be somehow captured permanently. I imagine a solution where people grow stands of fast growing trees, clear cut every $optimal years, use (magic?) chemistry to separate the harvest into carbon and not carbon, then dump the not carbon back onto the soil, and replant. Even with that, I’m not convinced there are enough acres of land on earth. I haven’t seen anyone do the m…

You'll be happy to know that what you describe exists and it has a name: pyrolysis. Pyrolysis is the thermal anaerobic decomposition of biomass. Basically, you heat up organic material without oxygen at temperatures attainable from a relatively small fire. During this process, volatiles such as hydrogen and oxygen separate from the carbon in the biomass feedstock (dry untreated wood, bones, old cotton tshirts, whatev…

That doesn’t solve the “dump the non-carbon back into the soil” part. Presumably repeated clear cutting would strip the top soil of nutrients in a few generations of trees. At that point, you need to reintroduce those nutrients (especially nitrogen) somehow.

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

#105

Post by developer92 » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 6:38 AM UTC

ubuwaits wrote: post #37

IgorPartola wrote: post #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 c…

Bill Gates wrote about the impact of planting trees recently: > It sounds like a simple fix and it has obvious appeal for all of us who love trees, but its impact on climate change is overblown. Although trees absorb some carbon, they can never take in enough to offset the damage from our modern lifestyle. To absorb the lifetime emissions that will be produced by every American alive today — just 4 per cent of the gl…

yes but this is the guy who didn't think he needs to give up his private jet, so although I'm sure he's will intentioned I'll not accept his pronouncements about the environment at face value, I'll check elsewhere first.

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

#106

Post by developer92 » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 6:45 AM UTC

hedora wrote: post #48

NiceWayToDoIT wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things are so dire that even if we use all "guns" in our disposal it will be difficult. There is no single solutions that can help, amount of CO2 is so huge that if we would turn CO2 we need to sequester into graphite bricks we could build a wall 10 meters high and 5 meters wide encircling the Earth around Equator 32 times. So, we need all we can think at same time, now. :/ Simply, current amount of carbon in the atm…

Also, the carbon those trees sequester needs to be somehow captured permanently. I imagine a solution where people grow stands of fast growing trees, clear cut every $optimal years, use (magic?) chemistry to separate the harvest into carbon and not carbon, then dump the not carbon back onto the soil, and replant. Even with that, I’m not convinced there are enough acres of land on earth. I haven’t seen anyone do the m…

you'll be glad to know that leaving wood to rot on the ground only releases about 30% of the carbon, and allows for further biodiversity to live that might absorb further carbon. The fact is the natural world has mechanisms for this, we just need to let them work: stop clearing dead wood for example.

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

#107

Post by developer92 » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 6:50 AM UTC

hedora wrote: post #48

NiceWayToDoIT wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things are so dire that even if we use all "guns" in our disposal it will be difficult. There is no single solutions that can help, amount of CO2 is so huge that if we would turn CO2 we need to sequester into graphite bricks we could build a wall 10 meters high and 5 meters wide encircling the Earth around Equator 32 times. So, we need all we can think at same time, now. :/ Simply, current amount of carbon in the atm…

Also, the carbon those trees sequester needs to be somehow captured permanently. I imagine a solution where people grow stands of fast growing trees, clear cut every $optimal years, use (magic?) chemistry to separate the harvest into carbon and not carbon, then dump the not carbon back onto the soil, and replant. Even with that, I’m not convinced there are enough acres of land on earth. I haven’t seen anyone do the m…

Clear cutting is a bad idea, if you think about circumference = 2piR you can see that the older the tree is the more CO2 it takes up. You need to let trees get as big as possible if you want to be efficient. Additionally big trees support more biodiversity, which afaik is also important in carbon capture.

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

#108

Post by developer92 » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 6:51 AM UTC

BurningFrog wrote: post #96

NiceWayToDoIT wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things are so dire that even if we use all "guns" in our disposal it will be difficult. There is no single solutions that can help, amount of CO2 is so huge that if we would turn CO2 we need to sequester into graphite bricks we could build a wall 10 meters high and 5 meters wide encircling the Earth around Equator 32 times. So, we need all we can think at same time, now. :/ Simply, current amount of carbon in the atm…

Note that cutting trees is not a problem, as long as the wood isn't allowed to convert back to CO₂. So how do we sequester large amounts of wood for a century at least?

rotting wood does not release much CO2, I think about 30%. Most of it ends up in the soil.

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

#109

Post by NathanielK » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 7:55 AM UTC

11235813213455 wrote: post #66

tima101 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also plant trees by yourself. Last year I planted 10 Siberian and Korean pines in one day. 7 trees survived, 3 trees died because I over watered them. So those 7 trees don't actually need any extra care from me.

Are those trees native (local on your area)? Also just curious, why not planting fruit trees? That's what I'd do right away if I had land

Fruit trees make a mess. The fruits fall if you don't pick it. Rotting fruit smells and attracts insects such as wasps.

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

#110

Post by htnsao » Mon, Mar 22, 2021, 2:44 PM UTC

ubuwaits wrote: post #37

IgorPartola wrote: post #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 c…

Bill Gates wrote about the impact of planting trees recently: > It sounds like a simple fix and it has obvious appeal for all of us who love trees, but its impact on climate change is overblown. Although trees absorb some carbon, they can never take in enough to offset the damage from our modern lifestyle. To absorb the lifetime emissions that will be produced by every American alive today — just 4 per cent of the gl…

Gates is supporting many good solutions but this quote about trees is false. As outlined in the book The Treesolution, it's just "2 billion hectares of trees to disconnect all present and past CO2 what is produced through fossil fuels." [1]

and furthermore

"Pieter Hoff says that we can replant a hectare for approximately 2,500 USD. We need 2 billion hectares of trees to disconnect all present and past CO2 what is produced through fossil fuels. The total investment to clean the air from the CO2 pollution is therefore 5 trillion USD. This investment is smaller than the costs of saving the bank system since 2008. Both USA and Europe spent over 6 trillion USD to save their banks."

Note: it's an investment, not an expense. ie profitable.

[1] https://www.groasis.com/en/downloads/download-the-treesoluti...