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So many trees planted in Taklamakan Desert that it's turned into a carbon sink

livescience.com

41–50 of 91 posts

Re: So many trees planted in Taklamakan Desert that it's turned into a carbon sink

#41
post #5

China accounts for more than 25% of the global net increase in leaf area between 2000 and 2017, according to NASA data https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/plants/china-has-pl... China's also been a major supporter of the Great Green Wall of Africa providing technology and funding. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3302068/why-...

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Re: So many trees planted in Taklamakan Desert that it's turned into a carbon sink

#43

Do initiatives like these hurt native desert species?

There is an interesting effect where deserts help rain forests and oceans grow new life. Winds carry desert sands and dust that are rich in iron and phosphorus into the oceans and act as fertilizer. Even lifeless deserts are important to the global ecosystems.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=desert+sands+fertilize+oceans

Re: So many trees planted in Taklamakan Desert that it's turned into a carbon sink

#46

Do initiatives like these hurt native desert species?

Surely deforestation hurt native species as well. Is there any reason to not try to reverse some of that damage? Do you think they are going to make things worse overall?

Re: So many trees planted in Taklamakan Desert that it's turned into a carbon sink

#47
post #12

How much deforestation over the past decades has been reversed and is deforestation currently under control?

The main problem with attempts at reversing the damage is that forests aren't fungible. An old growth forest has a rich, balanced ecosystem. Newly planted forests tend to be susceptible to catastrophic damage by various critters, as the species mix is much less complex, and their fauna and flora is relatively impoverished.

So you just need to be stubborn until they stick or cleverer in how you go about it?

Re: So many trees planted in Taklamakan Desert that it's turned into a carbon sink

#48
post #5

China accounts for more than 25% of the global net increase in leaf area between 2000 and 2017, according to NASA data https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/plants/china-has-pl... China's also been a major supporter of the Great Green Wall of Africa providing technology and funding. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3302068/why-...

And most of their carbon dioxide production is due to “developed countries” consumption

Re: So many trees planted in Taklamakan Desert that it's turned into a carbon sink

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main problem with attempts at reversing the damage is that forests aren't fungible. An old growth forest has a rich, balanced ecosystem. Newly planted forests tend to be susceptible to catastrophic damage by various critters, as the species mix is much less complex, and their fauna and flora is relatively impoverished.

So you just need to be stubborn until they stick or cleverer in how you go about it?

Biology is complicated, ecology even more so...

An old forest is a result of multiple waves successions after disasters (fire, windstorms etc.), which are really hard to emulate. Some desirable seedlings are hard to grow artificially, others just won't prosper in situ unless/until very specific conditions are met...

After a long enough time, the forest will eventually revert to a fully natural state, but that time is way longer than human lifetime. It is a living organism of sorts and living organisms are much easier to kill than to re-create.

Re: So many trees planted in Taklamakan Desert that it's turned into a carbon sink

#50
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.sunbeltrentals.co.uk/news-and-blogs/decrease-you... > Of course, we know that fuel consumption varies drastically from machine to machine, so we’ve looked at an example of a very high utilisation rate too. We found that an 8T excavator that spent 11 hours and 3 minutes working, 1 hour and 6 minutes of which were idle, it used 89 litres of fuel and resulted in 237.4kgs of carbon emissions. 4 hours saved on…

That tree carbon capture estimate is probably conservative here if planting trees achieved de-desertification and resulted a larger thriving ecosystem.

Likely very conservative considering the changes to the local biome, capture in the soil, etc : https://www.climate-forests.org/post/carbon-sequestration-an...
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