Planting 1.2T Trees Could Cancel Out a Decade of CO2 Emissions • Hacker News Board

Re: Planting 1.2T Trees Could Cancel Out a Decade of CO2 Emissions

#141

Post by dfuego » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:15 PM UTC

Panino wrote: post #46

A good way to take part in increasing the number of trees, if you own your own home, is to improve the state of your shade trees. The trees absorb atmospheric carbon while also reducing home temperatures in summer, which in turn reduces the electricity people use for cooling. (And you save money!!) So a shade tree is a particularly effective way to reduce both atmospheric CO2 and electric bills. You might think of sh…

That's awesome, this definitely helps. And if you don't own a house you can also take part on this by offsetting your emissions buying Forest Carbon Credits. At Pachama (YC W19) (Pachama.com) we're working to make it easier, cheaper and more reliable to certify and monitor carbon credits from Forest Projects, and then to make it easier for anyone to buy those credits. We're also hiring!

Re: Planting 1.2T Trees Could Cancel Out a Decade of CO2 Emissions

#142

Post by rebuilder » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:16 PM UTC

maelito wrote: post #70

> Trees are “our most powerful weapon in the fight against climate change” No, our most powerful weapon against climate change is reducing human GHG emissions.

You have to find a way to do that, though, in a way that doesn't result in a revolt.

Re: Planting 1.2T Trees Could Cancel Out a Decade of CO2 Emissions

#143

Post by masklinn » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:16 PM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #115

Panino wrote: post #46

A good way to take part in increasing the number of trees, if you own your own home, is to improve the state of your shade trees. The trees absorb atmospheric carbon while also reducing home temperatures in summer, which in turn reduces the electricity people use for cooling. (And you save money!!) So a shade tree is a particularly effective way to reduce both atmospheric CO2 and electric bills. You might think of sh…

Where do you live where shade trees are a thing?

Anywhere but super extreme latitudes? I'd never heard the concept spelled out like that, but I've seen / heard many instances. Basically any non-fruit tree which isn't kept at shrub / hedge size is at least in part intended for shade. Hell, it's also not uncommon for some fruit trees (I usually see walnuts and chestnuts as shade trees with the useful side-effect of nuts).

Re: Planting 1.2T Trees Could Cancel Out a Decade of CO2 Emissions

#144

Post by dfuego » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:18 PM UTC

jweir wrote: post #57

But, wait... some places are clearing forest for solar farms. Georgetown https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/01/georgetow... Rhode Island https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20190414/proposed-ri-... Prineville Oregon(I dont' know how many trees will be cleared for this, maybe it will be on existing farmland) https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2018/07/massive_so...

This is total non-sense. There are so many deserted areas in the US and all over the planet -where radiance is actually a lot higher- where to install solar panels.

Re: Planting 1.2T Trees Could Cancel Out a Decade of CO2 Emissions

#145

Post by dfuego » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:19 PM UTC

gustaf wrote: post #127

Y Combinator funded https://www.pachama.com/ in the batch of YC. They're building a marketplace of carbon credit to enable exactly this. They're hiring for engineering and operations in San Francisco right now https://angel.co/pachama/jobs

Thanks Gustaf! Yes, we will be hiring for many roles soon. Email us to jobs@pachama.com!

Re: Planting 1.2T Trees Could Cancel Out a Decade of CO2 Emissions

#146

Post by strainer » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:21 PM UTC

mikestew wrote: post #110

jandrese wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's only 160 trees for every man, woman, and child on Earth... It doesn't seem like a particularly practical solution.

One could plant that many pine saplings in a weekend with good hand tools. Mechanize it, spread the cost amongst many, I believe it wouldn’t cost, relative to what it offsetting, all that much. Land acquisition would probably be the larger obstacle.

I once worked for a short spell in a tree-planting squad in the highlands of Scotland. The seasoned planters were olympically fit and each planted around 100 saplings an hour across rough mountainside.

Re: Planting 1.2T Trees Could Cancel Out a Decade of CO2 Emissions

#147

Post by jhrmnn » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:21 PM UTC

gameswithgo wrote: post #133

Until those trees die, then its all back again. Trees are just a buffer, and how much co2 would be produced mobilizing the planet to plant 1.2 trillion trees?

Not necessarily. As other posters in this discussion point out, you can for instance create biochar from trees, which can be permanently planted in the ground, thus finally returning in the place of origin the carbon we earlier dug out in the form of oil and natural gas.

Re: Planting 1.2T Trees Could Cancel Out a Decade of CO2 Emissions

#148

Post by alkonaut » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:21 PM UTC

jandrese wrote: post #76

burlesona wrote: post #61

Not to be too snarky, but my first reaction to the headline was, “ only 1.2 trillion? What are we waiting for!” More seriously, though: the article claims there’s “ample acreage” for such an endeavor but I didn’t see where exactly they’re referring to. Are we supposed to imagine these are sprinkled here and there around the earth, and that there’s plenty of space just waiting for a tree to be planted, or is this some…

That's only 160 trees for every man, woman, and child on Earth... It doesn't seem like a particularly practical solution.

For comparison, in Sweden, Finland etc there is 5-10000 trees per capita already. Adding a 1000 more per head would be easy in terms of space. So that would cover say 100M people.

Re: Planting 1.2T Trees Could Cancel Out a Decade of CO2 Emissions

#149

Post by dfuego » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:22 PM UTC

EamonnMR wrote: post #33

This is a great illustration of how there is no hope of sequestration as a solution. We're unlikely to plant even just a billion trees.

We're on the way to drive billions of dollars for forest restoration via carbon credits. With economic incentives that work it absolutely possible.

I'm the founder of Pachama (YC W19) where we're working to help make this market efficient and accountable.

Re: Planting 1.2T Trees Could Cancel Out a Decade of CO2 Emissions

#150

Post by VBprogrammer » Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 7:22 PM UTC

village-idiot wrote: post #118

jweir wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on the tree(s), it could be consuming CO2 24 hours a day, year round, solar is just part of the day and only reaches capacity for a brief moment. I don't know the numbers to show the difference. That is why I asked for some facts which the OP seems to know.

A single average fully grown tree can sequester about 88lbs of CO2 per year according to the Center for Urban Forest Research, which is part of the US Forest Service. The average electricity service in the US produces about 1lb of CO2 per kWh, meaning that your solar panel needs to reduce your consumption by only 88 kWh per year below what your shaded house cost would be to be a net positive over a shade tree.

Don't quote me on this but from memory a tree is able to sequester a lot more in the first couple of years than as a fully grown tree. Intuitively that makes sense.