Even if you let them fully mature they will eventually breakdown because that’s what trees do and then all that stored carbon will return to the atmosphere. This carbon capture is mostly fruitless as the amount of carbon they store is negligible compared to how much we are adding to the atmosphere but if they are turning it into “rock” which is likely just graphite that would take carbon out of the carbon cycle and actually sequester it. which we desperately need to do to offset the ridiculous amount sequestered carbon we are adding to the atmosphere
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lime@feddit.nu 5 days agoplanting trees also only works for carbon capture if you don’t cut them down until they have lived their entire natural lives, which is not the way it’s done anywhere.
BussyCat@lemmy.world 4 days ago
chuckleslord@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Explain that one to me. The tree is made of carbon, storing the tree somewhere outside the carbon cycle would reduce the amount of carbon. Why would they need to be fully mature?
jnod4@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
Yeah, just cut it and store it when the growth brings diminishing returns
lime@feddit.nu 4 days ago
okay, they would need to fully mature to completely do the carbon capture job we want. point being, these carbon capture plantations are not protected in any way, so they are usually used for farmland after a few years and the trees are burned for fuel. even if they go into something ostensibly carbon neutral, say, housing, they’re usually cut down before having absorbed all the carbon they can.
and then before discussing the lost carbon capture potential that stems from creating big plots of monoculture…