Re:Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought a...
by bayesian_horse on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @05:36AM
(#20563319)
Maybe it's easier to let them rot in place like it worked in the rainforests for millions of years?
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Re:Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought a...
by zkomp on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @06:05AM
(#20563421)
Look up terra preta, regular wood would just decompose and release the carbon back. You have to make charcoal out of it to be able to sequester carbon in the longer term (thousands of years)
Re:Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought a...
by abraae on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @05:57AM
(#20563382)
Rotting releases their co2.
All good when things are in balance - but they're not.
To sequester the c02, you need to prevent rot.
Re:Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought a...
by delecti on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @09:51AM
(#20564817)
If you cut down the trees and sequester the carbon elsewhere, you can sequester more, but just establishing new forests all over would still increase the amount of carbon cycling in those local ecosystems, and get it out of the atmosphere. Both is probably best.
Re:Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought a...
by chimprich on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @10:08AM
(#20564952)
I don't have any figures, but on the assumption that few processes are 100% efficient I'd guess you wouldn't get complete decomposition before the fallen tree is buried. You'd probably get a reasonable, if inefficient, removal of carbon from the atmosphere. Probably better than nothing if you couldn't figure out a way of using the wood more effectively.
Re:Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought a...
by bayesian_horse on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @07:59AM
(#20564012)
Hm, as far as I remember that was the way CO2 was turned into fossil fuel, depositing layers over layers of vegetation...
Re:Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought a...
by tcbawo on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @08:12AM
(#20564082)
I believe that accumulation happened before microorganisms had evolved to digest cellulose (?). If we can ever produce a surplus of electricity, we would ideally sequester carbon in a place other than the bottom of the ocean, creating a giant Earth-battery. Although it would be ironic if "carbon sequestration" meant heaping plastic in landfills.
Re:Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought a...
by quickthrower2 on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @08:15AM
(#20564101)
Probably a really bad idea but what about chemical treatment to prevent rot.
Re:Ethiopia Plants 350M Trees in One Day to Combat Drought a...
by bayesian_horse on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @09:22AM
(#20564561)
That would negate the advantage of not requiring extra effort/energy. And decomposition of organic material is required for the rainforest ecosystem to work.
And I'd go with radiation or heating for sterilization.