[mkl]

But the tree you just chopped down got its carbon from the atmosphere just a few years ago. That's what makes it carbon neutral. The coal (/gas/oil/etc.) got its carbon from the atmosphere in the far distant past, so from our point of view it's new additional carbon that wasn't in the system before. It can only be considered carbon neutral over a time span of millions of years, which is pretty meaningless.

[WalterBright]

> That's what makes it carbon neutral.

Nope. You're emitting exactly the same CO2.

Want to be green? Burn less. Changing your point of view won't lessen CO2 emissions. Burning less carbon will.

[ben_w]

The CO2 emissions are not themselves the point, the CO2 concentrations are. The concentration is neutral in time scales we care about from wood/alge/bioethanol/etc., but goes up from fossil fuels.

It’s also fine to burn fossil fuels if you can make long-term carbon sinks from other processes, hence people caring about making carbon-rich rocks or whether dead plankton floats our sinks.

It’s a question of being responsible for the consequences of actions, not outright banning those actions before the alternatives have been deployed at scale.