[asdswe]

Planting trees should be combined with sustainable harvesting, and using the wood material for building, replacing as much carbon emitting concrete as possible. The buildings should also be built and maintained so that they last as long as possible, effectively acting as long-term carbon sinks.

This way we could have both forests and urban areas acting as carbon sinks. Somebody should tell Americans and EU leaders that wooden buildings do indeed exist already.

[Darmody]

What is "sustainable harvesting"? Planting more than chopping down?

It goes beyond that. A forest is not only a collection of trees. To have a forest you also need an undergrowth (I think it's called that way). That's why we have less forest but more trees in some places in Europe.

We need urgently to stop cutting virgin forests. There are not many left and it'll take centuries, maybes millennia to have them back.

[fredrikholm]

On your last point:

This process can be sped up via intelligent afforestation (Miyawaki, permaculture etc).

Heavy mulching combined with densely planted native plants of different heights (everything from understory to canopy layer) effectively traps enough moisture and introduces a wide enough variety of microbes to sufficiently kick start a positive spiral mimicking virgin forests.

This requires manual input of water and mulching for the first two years or so. After that point you have a self sufficient, dense forest that rivals natural ones.

Combined with water harvesting (swales, check dams, man made ponds) this has been proven very effective in dry parts India, China, Northern Africa and Australia.

[greenie_beans]

Just learned about Mikyawaki. This is why I look at the comments. Thanks.

[Darmody]

I didn't know that. I'll look more into it, thanks.

[fredrikholm]

A great start is the Paani foundation; they move thousands of villages from water tank dependency to self-sufficiency in their annual competition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8nqnOcoLqE

[Darmody]

That's pretty cool.

Now I wonder. With an efficient water desalinization how long would it take us to turn arid zones into complete oasis?

That would be massively helpful against global warming.

[inglor_cz]

We can prolong life of small concrete structures if no rebar is used. Without rebar, concrete cannot tolerate high loads, but its lifespan is dramatically increased, from a few decades to potentially millennia. It is, after all, a kind of artificial stone.

Concrete without rebar can be used for construction of small buildings and those would last a long, long time. Much longer than anything made of timber. A 20-generation home of sorts. Remember that once the timber rots away or is burnt, the trapped carbon gets released again.

[Theodores]

I think your last point is well known.

Let's grow more trees and go back to buildings made of wood isn't commonly suggested though.

In the UK wood is historically used for floors, doors and windows. The rest was stone until canals and trains enabled brick to be used. With roads came concrete.

[vondur]

I’m wonder if Roman structures used any rebar or something similar?

[inglor_cz]

Nope. That seems to be one of the reasons why they are so sturdy. Nothing susceptible to rusting inside.

Some Roman concrete piers have actually hardened further through the constant action of the waves, so they are now harder than they were in antiquity.