Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best? • Hacker News Board

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#131

Post by iamaelephant » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 8:23 PM UTC

jerkstate wrote: post #7

I did a rough spreadsheet some time back based on this 1998 EPA carbon sequestration worksheet [1] and found that an average person from a high carbon output country needs about 600-1000 trees to offset their carbon output. There are about 3 trillion trees for a population of 7 billion people for an average of 428 trees per person, so that means you have to make up the delta of about 172 to 572 trees over the course…

New Zealand currently has a programme to plant one billion trees in the next 10 years, about 250 trees per person, so this doesn't seem at all unreasonable.

https://www.mpi.govt.nz/funding-and-programmes/forestry/plan...

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#132

Post by philipkglass » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 8:26 PM UTC

aresant wrote: post #125

philipkglass wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electricity from solar photovoltaic generation has life cycle emissions 90-95% lower than fossil-derived electricity, per median figures in the IPCC's 2014 tabulation of global warming potential of selected electricity sources. Geothermal, concentrated solar power, nuclear power, and wind power have even lower life cycle emissions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life-cycle_greenhouse-gas_emis... Displacing fossil-deri…

I 100% agree. I originally started banging out a comment saying forget the trees, build more nuclear power but didn't want to invite a downvoting brigade, which I effectively walked into anyways :)

Introducing nuclear power in climate discussions tends to cause flamewars because it's often introduced by someone making extreme blanket statements, like "humans cannot be trusted with nuclear power" or "nuclear is the only available solution to climate change."

Just mention it as one of the low-emissions alternatives to fossil power. Cite climate-focused organizations for support rather than industry-specific organizations. The aim is to reduce emissions, not to promote one specific technology toward that end.

I wish that we just had carbon tax-and-dividend instead of a thousand different regulations and tax code incentives mandating or nudging toward specific kinds of efficiency measures and fossil replacements. At the same time I understand that carbon taxes face enormous popular opposition while tax credits and CAFE standards don't, so I'll accept having 3 different kinds of federal tax incentives to separately promote nuclear power, wind power, and solar power (plus a myriad of differently structured state level incentives) as the best the US can currently do.

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#133

Post by JudgeWapner » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 8:36 PM UTC

gnode wrote: post #95

tunesmith wrote: post #57

I don't see how 1.5 billion trees is enough to offset the UK's carbon emission rate. If you go by a tree sequestering a ton of carbon over a 40 year lifetime, and the UK emitting 368 megatons per year... you're sequestering on average 37.5 million tons per year (less when they're young, more when they're old), which is only one tenth of what the UK emits in one year. Plant 15 billion trees and then you're carbon neut…

The slow initial growth of trees makes me wonder whether we'd be better planting fast growing crops like bamboo and hemp which can be processed into long term materials like fibreboard and bioplastic or added to concrete.

and seaweed near areas with ocean access. I wonder if you could have wastewater treatment plants that feed seaweed (in a large enclosure with seawater access, done responsibly), then harvest the seaweed, dry it, and send the carbon straight to mines for sequestration.

More simply, perhaps farmers could be encouraged to sink waste carbon in the same way. Corn farmers could be encouraged to send the husks to sequestration instead of burning (I know they use the ashes as compost, so there are downsides). Or hemp, as you said, strip the leaves from the stems and send one or the other to a carbon sink.

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#134

Post by JudgeWapner » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 8:38 PM UTC

Merrill wrote: post #96

Where? Not where it will grow up into utility lines, or where it will fall into utilities or onto a structure. What type? Small and strong species that will not uproot, snap off or shed branches in a windstorm, and will tolerate heavy loads of ice and/or snow, depending on your climate.

trees don't need to be in perfect shape to sequester carbon. breaking off branches is part of nature's process. and they can be trimmed to avoid powerlines since you have plenty of warning. I think the biggest concern is for those who live in deserts where water is scarce.

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#135

Post by pmohun » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 8:40 PM UTC

hangonhn wrote: post #6

Slightly tangentially related, for those of us who are into gardening and coding, there is a plant monitor made by Xiaomi called Xiaomi Flower Care that will monitor moisture, light, temperature, and soil fertility. It works over Bluetooth and can be purchased on Amazon for as low as $8 per probe but the vendors will often charge around $25. You see a lot of rebranded ones but they're all the same from Xiaomi. It wor…

You may find this interesting: http://www.takecareofmyplant.com/

There is a related subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/takecareofmyplant/

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#136

Post by JudgeWapner » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 8:44 PM UTC

dx87 wrote: post #14

rebuilder wrote: post #4

My wife and I have a property with a good bit of forest. It's mostly fir trees and birch. Every now and then I wonder if there's some way to increase the co2 uptake of the forest, but the question appears surprisingly complicated, and so far my conclusion has been to just leave it be. Has anyone looked into this?

There was an article posted recently that said the best way to increase the co2 uptake is by cutting down the fully grown trees and planting new trees. Full grown trees don't absord as much co2 as a tree that is still growing, and the needles that some trees drop make the ground acidic, preventing new trees from growing. The problem is that you have to find something to do with all the wood so the captured co2 doesn'…

it's probably a 2 (or more) factor optimization problem. Because even if large trees don't absorb as much, they are still blocking sunlight and converting at least some (how much, I don't know) of the photons into photosynthesis instead of heat. The sweet spot would probably be a medium-size tree.

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#137

Post by rohittidke » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 8:46 PM UTC

jws wrote: post #102

rohittidke wrote: post #80

Could we plant trees in parking lots? A law must be made. In the US especially West Coast (Seattle) for example and also in Germany a lot of flat space has been taken by parking lots. Its actually crazy seeing these huge parking lots. Could we plant verticle wines and change the geometry (introducing gradients to add area for a tree - simple pythogoras concept) to add space for at least a tree per car slot or maybe a…

Many places in the US having zoning codes requiring trees or other plantings in parking lots of certain sizes. Success is mixed. Where I live a big box store will typically be built with a bunch of small trees planted which don't have adequate area for water to reach their roots. They will die in a few years and maybe be replaced by more tiny trees which die. So, that zoning might want to be revisited. Writing laws t…

Yup but its like a cat mouse game. There never will be no crime so the in the government laws must keep evolving, just as the thieves get more innovative. But the laws are needed. In Germany at least now they are taking climate change seriously. Munich has invested a lot in public Transport and by 2030 it would really at a good level. The parking lots Story I will make a Blog soon with preise carbon calculations so that its advantage us both for the Business and the climate.

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#138

Post by oh_sigh » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 9:14 PM UTC

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #69

hillz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a tree is planted, grows, and then for example is burned down and paved over, that'd be true. But if a tree grows and eventually dies in a forest, it'll be replaced with new trees naturally, cancelling out the CO2 leaked from the tree dying. This C02 can also be stalled by harvesting the tree and using it in some way that stops C02 from being released for a longer time than natural.

I did some math on this, and if all the countries in the advanced world planted fast growing trees alongside all paved and unpaved roads, over 40 years, that could potentially be enough to sequester half of all carbon emitted by humans. Given that carbon has a half life of between 20-200 years, and that we appear to be reaching peak emissions, and that a lot of estimates say our emissions should drop by 70% just give…

One problem I can see right off the bat is at the trees might rec a lot of the pavement (from roots uplifting the pavement).

Walking around parts of Portland on the sidewalk is like being on a rollercoaster because of the tree roots.

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#139

Post by IgorPartola » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 9:15 PM UTC

jerkstate wrote: post #7

I did a rough spreadsheet some time back based on this 1998 EPA carbon sequestration worksheet [1] and found that an average person from a high carbon output country needs about 600-1000 trees to offset their carbon output. There are about 3 trillion trees for a population of 7 billion people for an average of 428 trees per person, so that means you have to make up the delta of about 172 to 572 trees over the course…

My understanding was that trees are not the best way to go about this. Seaweed is best, followed by grass, then trees. To be fair, planting seaweed isn’t as satisfying.

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#140

Post by CalRobert » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 9:21 PM UTC

jerkstate wrote: post #7

I did a rough spreadsheet some time back based on this 1998 EPA carbon sequestration worksheet [1] and found that an average person from a high carbon output country needs about 600-1000 trees to offset their carbon output. There are about 3 trillion trees for a population of 7 billion people for an average of 428 trees per person, so that means you have to make up the delta of about 172 to 572 trees over the course…

That's actually way, way less than I'd have thought. 500 trees isn't all that much, really. A nlick of 25x20 trees? What is that, an acre? (Genuinely asking... Giant sequoias will be different from sitka spruce)