293
Taking CO2 out of the air would be an absurdly expensive way to fight climate change
(www.theverge.com)
Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.
As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades:
How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world:
Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:
Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.
Trees end up releasing a lot of carbon down the road
We're releasing a lot of carbon right now.
The neat thing is when a tree dies and starts releasing it again, the trees around it absorb it, and here's the best part: They plant new trees all on their own.
Doesn’t help through forest fires
But the tree angle is mostly used by polluters to say they are carbon neutral because they planted some trees somewhere so they can continue polluting
Not saying you are one of them, just to not put so much stock in it when we should be aiming for elimination
I mean I'll agree 100% that carbon credits or whatever they're called now is bollocks.
But more trees can't hurt. And they're nicer than endless fields of corn.
Redwoods live thousands of years. I'm cool with punting this problem 3000 years into the future.
While trees are great and you have a point, we can't just put trees everywhere without consideration of native species. Much of the U.S. for example is prairie/grasslands that doesn't have a high tree density and the carbon is cycled much faster. Also of concern (not my concern but somebody's) is the property value of land used for trees instead of profit.
A acre of hemp regrown every year and a biochar retort could sequester far more carbon than an acre of forest over a given period and can be done on "wastelands". Biochar IMHO is the only carbon sequestration method that actually makes sense.