Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by njarboe 1423 days ago
Many trees live for over 500 years (Redwoods, Cedars, Douglar Fir, Oaks, etc.). They can be part of the solution of keeping CO2 levels down while our energy system is de-carbonized. Go ahead and plant trees. They are great in many other ways also.
1 comments

Again, the real deal breaker is needing 1.6 earths worth of land. No one is saying planting trees is a bad thing, but there is no escaping the need for other methods of carbon capture.

Trees tend to stop growing after about 150 years, so trees left standing longer than that will delay releasing the CO2 they've already captured, but will not continue to capture carbon. Indeed you probably want to cull trees before their growth rates start to decline around the 100 year mark to maximize your carbon capture rate.

Do you have a link that summarises the “FAQ” answers you have made?
If you don't mind videos, these are a pretty good explainer: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlgF_EchG56YnW2bLDk-...