Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by m0zg 2492 days ago
I googled some and it looks like Amazon rainforest alone removes about a quarter of fossil fuel CO2 from the atmosphere. That's more than I thought it'd be. And it looks like it could sequester much more if there was more phosphorus in the soil.
2 comments
jamesdmiller 2492 days ago
Where do they put it? Wouldn't this require the total biomass of the rainforest to be continually increasing?
link
sp332 2492 days ago
Old growth forests are not carbon-neutral. Models had to be adjusted after this study in 2008: https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Global-Warming/2008/09...
link
sp332 2492 days ago
Where did you see that figure?
link
m0zg 2492 days ago
https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2019/08/20/amazon-rainforest-abso...

Quote: "The Amazon Basin is critical to help mitigate climate change due to its trees absorbing around a quarter of the CO2 released each year from the burning of fossil fuels."

link
shkkmo 2492 days ago
This is why you need to be careful about understanding and quoting scientific facts.

The specific quote is talking about trees in the rainforest, not the rainforest itself. The rainforest is an ecological system that also produces CO2 (mainly through microbes breaking down wood) and you can't ignore the rest of the system.

Which is not to say that the Amazon doesn't play a significant in the global environment and weather systems.

link