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Re:Restoring natural forests is the best way to remove atmos... by xyzzyz on Wednesday April 03, 2019 @05:47AM (#19562053)
Even when it finally decomposes through rot or consumption a lot of the carbon is kept out of the atmosphere, ending up in the food chain fed by the organisms that consume it.

No, not a lot. In fact, it’s practically nothing, compared to the mass of trees. Think about it: are you using the mass of 150 adult trees annually for buildings? Are you sequestering much of it in your body? Not even close. Today America consumes less than a half of a single adult tree per capita per year.

The carbon is only sequestered when the trees are alive or when they are buried or sunk. If you don’t bury and only have space for a decade of tree planting, you are at best going to delay the climate change by a decade, which is not nothing, but won’t change much. And, of course, we ignore things like albedo changes due to more forestation which could offset a big part of gain.

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