Live data from Hacker News

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

e360.yale.edu

91–100 of 332 posts

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

#91
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…

Cuts into my solar power generation through. So its a trade-off. Interestingly enough, from an energy production perspective the solar panels on the roof result in more reduction in CO2 than the trees do.

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

#92

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.

Any solution would need multiple avenues. Abandoning each avenue because it isn't a total solution by itself guarantees defeat.

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

#93

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.

How hard is it to plant a tree? Especially if it's young and there is very clear guidance as to which native trees should be planted in which contexts you have available to you locally (account for full size growth and sunlight / water needs).

If over one year everyone planted 3 trees per week, and we employed a work force of people to cultivate them further, we would make a huge dent in our catastrophic risk exposure? Sure, it's seemingly impractical alongside the status quo of land distribution and use ( $$$ into develop all the land and farm humans for rent!!), but... more green will be good for the health of nearly all the living things on Earth, and at the very least give us more time to find even better solutions.

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

#94
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…

Cuts into my solar power generation through. So its a trade-off. Interestingly enough, from an energy production perspective the solar panels on the roof result in more reduction in CO2 than the trees do.

Can you prove that or back that up with some facts?

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

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nor the small emission from natural decay of dead wood That said it could also: - absorb some heat - create new wind / rain cycles - provides a lot of material (construction/furniture) to replace cement and plastics - kill millions of people of exhaustion from planting that many trees

If each person on the planet would plant 150 trees this year, we would be finished.

For some reason I pictured people moving fully grown trees .. planting 150 seeds is not a lot indeed.

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

#96
post #66

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.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion_Tree_Tsunami Successfully completed in 2017

So we need the same effort only 1200 times over, which means something like 5 times for each country on earth including the very tiny ones.

Still, every little helps.

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

#97

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.

It seems incredibly practical to me. I've seen a quote for 40 dollars to plant a thousand trees. That's something like 50 billion to offset a decade of global warming? Doesn't sound so bad. Spread the cost out worldwide, 5 billion a year, split between a few big countries?

http://forestandrange.org/southernpine/magement/planting/rea...

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

#100
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cuts into my solar power generation through. So its a trade-off. Interestingly enough, from an energy production perspective the solar panels on the roof result in more reduction in CO2 than the trees do.

Can you prove that or back that up with some facts?

I suspect this is because you generate power all year round, while a shade tree doesn’t help heat your house in winter..
Post reply on HN