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Wildfires are destroying California's forest carbon credit reserves, study says

reuters.com

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Re: Wildfires are destroying California's forest carbon credit reserves, study says

#51

Post by Ancalagon »

rr808 wrote: post #5
alexose wrote: post #3

Here in Northern California there are huge swaths of firs that are dead or diseased as a result of drought. When they burn (which they will, at high intensity), they'll release their carbon back into the air. Seems to me that there's an opportunity for someone to sequester a lot of carbon by burying these trees ( https://cbmjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1750-0... ) or by turning them into biochar/bio-oil…

Nice idea but surely all the chainsaws, loaders, trucks, diggers would burn so much diesel it isn't worth it?

You should be able to electrify all of those components at this point, no? Sorry maybe that is a dumb question, I just dont know.

Re: Wildfires are destroying California's forest carbon credit reserves, study says

#52

Post by Ancalagon »

BurningFrog wrote: post #42
alexose wrote: post #3

Here in Northern California there are huge swaths of firs that are dead or diseased as a result of drought. When they burn (which they will, at high intensity), they'll release their carbon back into the air. Seems to me that there's an opportunity for someone to sequester a lot of carbon by burying these trees ( https://cbmjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1750-0... ) or by turning them into biochar/bio-oil…

Burying trees seems like a huge effort. Is there a fundamental reason you can't treat the wood to make it non flammable and non digestible, and just stack them in big piles somewhere?

Like spraying them down in PFAS, insecticide, and wrapping them in plastic? Not sure that will go over well long term.

Edit: Hope yall realize this was sarcasm and none of these options would sequester the carbon long term.

Re: Wildfires are destroying California's forest carbon credit reserves, study says

#53

Post by qorrect »

hedora wrote: post #7
alexose wrote: post #3

Here in Northern California there are huge swaths of firs that are dead or diseased as a result of drought. When they burn (which they will, at high intensity), they'll release their carbon back into the air. Seems to me that there's an opportunity for someone to sequester a lot of carbon by burying these trees ( https://cbmjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1750-0... ) or by turning them into biochar/bio-oil…

In the SF area, the redwoods are dying off from heat/drought. The pines and oaks are being hit with disease. On balance, the oaks seem to be replacing the redwood forests, but everything is thinning out. The mountain forests in Southern California (near Yosemite, etc) have been burnt out hellscapes for years. Of course, this is all rounding error vs. the loss of 90% of the kelp forest, which many people didn't notice…

> We could also allow for community net metering so poor high density areas could establish nonprofit solar/wind farms that lower their electricity bills.

Is this something that one could do now ? I don't know where you'd begin on something like that but I'm loving this idea.

Re: Wildfires are destroying California's forest carbon credit reserves, study says

#54

Post by [deleted] »

Ancalagon wrote: post #51
rr808 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice idea but surely all the chainsaws, loaders, trucks, diggers would burn so much diesel it isn't worth it?

You should be able to electrify all of those components at this point, no? Sorry maybe that is a dumb question, I just dont know.

[deleted]

Re: Wildfires are destroying California's forest carbon credit reserves, study says

#55

Post by qorrect »

Ancalagon wrote: post #51
rr808 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice idea but surely all the chainsaws, loaders, trucks, diggers would burn so much diesel it isn't worth it?

You should be able to electrify all of those components at this point, no? Sorry maybe that is a dumb question, I just dont know.

Well not really the loaders and trucks yet. I don't think there are any commercial semis, but https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2022/05/13/big-rigs... seems to suggest that they are coming.

Re: Wildfires are destroying California's forest carbon credit reserves, study says

#56

Post by qorrect »

Ancalagon wrote: post #52
BurningFrog wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Burying trees seems like a huge effort. Is there a fundamental reason you can't treat the wood to make it non flammable and non digestible, and just stack them in big piles somewhere?

Like spraying them down in PFAS, insecticide, and wrapping them in plastic? Not sure that will go over well long term. Edit: Hope yall realize this was sarcasm and none of these options would sequester the carbon long term.

> Like spraying them down in PFAS, insecticide, and wrapping them in plastic?

Then sink them in the ocean.

Re: Wildfires are destroying California's forest carbon credit reserves, study says

#57

Post by [deleted] »

briantakita wrote: post #36
photochemsyn wrote: post #18

Forestry carbon credits have always been a bad joke, comparable to 'clean zero-emission coal plants' in terms of their effectiveness in slowing the rate of CO2 increase in the atmosphere. Such concepts are really borderline, if not actual, scientific fraud. The guilty parties here are politicians, bureaucrats and corporations who wanted to be seen as 'doing something' or selling 'responsible stewardship' to the publi…

The grift is even bigger than that. Scapegoating a naturally occurring gas for all of the world's problems is a huge opportunity for grifters, greenwashers, & con artists. I wonder if theres a study of scientists who add "the effects of global warming on..." to their paper titles for some career sustaining $$$. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of great work out there...however the incentives seem to invite unethica…

[deleted]

Re: Wildfires are destroying California's forest carbon credit reserves, study says

#58

Post by danielfoster »

alexose wrote: post #21
photochemsyn wrote: post #18

Forestry carbon credits have always been a bad joke, comparable to 'clean zero-emission coal plants' in terms of their effectiveness in slowing the rate of CO2 increase in the atmosphere. Such concepts are really borderline, if not actual, scientific fraud. The guilty parties here are politicians, bureaucrats and corporations who wanted to be seen as 'doing something' or selling 'responsible stewardship' to the publi…

Note that most of the carbon offsets offered by airlines are forestry-related. Any time you see offsets for less than $50/ton, proceed with an abundance of caution. I do think the general state of offsets is improving. There are more high-quality offsets hitting the market every day. They're much too expensive, but I'd rather see "real" offsets at a high price than the complete make-believe we've had up until recentl…

Not sure what airlines are offering now, but when I checked in 2019, United’s offset scheme included funding for sustainable tourism and education in developing countries. Great causes, but not an offset.

Re: Wildfires are destroying California's forest carbon credit reserves, study says

#59

Post by BurningFrog »

GloriousKoji wrote: post #46
BurningFrog wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no one solution to climate change. Growing forests is one of many things that can be part of fixing this.

I was going to comment on how less people is the easiest unacceptable single solution to climate change but then I considered the possibility that even if half of the world population disappeared, there's a good chance people will end up using twice as much resources.

Planetary genocide is always a cure worse than the disease.

Re: Wildfires are destroying California's forest carbon credit reserves, study says

#60

Post by BurningFrog »

Ancalagon wrote: post #52
BurningFrog wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Burying trees seems like a huge effort. Is there a fundamental reason you can't treat the wood to make it non flammable and non digestible, and just stack them in big piles somewhere?

Like spraying them down in PFAS, insecticide, and wrapping them in plastic? Not sure that will go over well long term. Edit: Hope yall realize this was sarcasm and none of these options would sequester the carbon long term.

Yeah, except the wrapping part is probably not needed.
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