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by Terr_ 377 days ago
There are good reasons to green-up our cities, but [edit: capturing] global CO2 levels isn't one of them.

Living things typically don't store carbon long-term, unless you take extra steps like burying them in bogs. Even if we were to collectively invest in sequestration, it'd be more effective with trees that are lower-maintenance, more densely/conveniently situated, and where residents don't complain that a tree needs to be kept-longer/removed-sooner. Perhaps we'd choose something else entirely like algae.

2 comments

Even if it's not typical, when circumstances are right they can store a lot of carbon in a hurry.

My garage is on the same level as my basement, so there's a 5' retaining wall on either side of it. Leaves blow around and get trapped in the corners. Once I didn't bother cleaning it up for several years and when I did I had to move several hundred pounds of new soil into my back yard because of how many leaves had decayed there. Small trees were growing in it.

Similar story with the drainage on the side of my house. Not long after I moved in a heavy rain filled my basement with water. I had to rent a machine to dig a trench on either side so that the back yard would stop becoming a pond when it rained. I'm sure this wasn't a problem in the 60's when it was built, but over time the decaying leaves from my neighbor's tree raised the ground level by something like 1.5 ft and spoiled the original slope (I eventually found the original grade, there was a whole brick patio down there).

We may have to be a bit more intentional than "plant a bunch of trees" to get this effect, but I think it's worth exploiting.

> There are good reasons to green-up our cities, but global CO2 levels isn't one of them.

I believe they can to a point. Trees, parks and greenery lower the average temperature for an area. Less heat being absorbed.

This would likely leads to less of a need for cooling and energy use.

That being said, I don't remember reading about how much of an effect it does have, just that it's not zero.