How about encouraging each community worldwide to plant more trees, thereby offsetting their carbon usage? I know the carbon gets released when the trees die or are burned but the tree biomass overall is what matters.
I like this idea! I mean, buildings can catch fire as well, but you can fireproof them. http://m.firefree.com/
Also if your goal is just to reduce carbon in the atmosphere you literally DO chop down trees and make sure they don't rot (timber into lumber and plywood) and the you can bury them under a sarcophagus or something.
In short, if your utility is building vs removing carbon from the atmosphere, you choose what to do.
Why don't people do this on a planet wide scale?????? What is the downside? Seems it would be an amazing natural carbon sink. What are the downsides and obstacles?
If private companies planted trees they could monetize all that timber also!!
I once did napkin math on how much forest should match carbon emissions. The number was large but it seemed very doable by a large land mass wealthy (who could that be?) state with sufficient commitment. Seriously feel like mass reforestation is under-discussed from my armchair studies.
It's not enough to plant trees, you have to trap the carbon they gather somehow. Otherwise when the tree dies, the decomposition process throws all that carbon back in the atmosphere.
The early plants (billions of years ago) went through a few generations before other organisms evolved to feed on their carcasses, so they just ended up buried deep underground, trapping their carbon (and lowering the carbon concentration in the atmosphere) until we came along and decided to dig them up and burn them, throwing all that carbon in the air again.
>...went through a few generations before other organisms evolved to feed on their carcasses,
You might be understating the time frame here a little bit. Most estimates I have read said it took about 60 million years before evolved the ability to break down lignin.
They do that here. The DNR sells very cheap seedlings in spring.
But where to plant them? Around here(rural Wisconsin) anything that isnt roads, houses, or farmland is trees. Trees require the same soil as food.
They could plant more in the city, which would lower air conditioning costs by providing shade. But mature trees are a safety hazard, as they can fall during storms.
