I’m not here to challenge your beliefs on government etc- just for some facts. Trees are actually pretty big business. Not just lumber and such- carbon credits. Many corporations use these for tax purposes or to label as “green” since the U.S. and some others allow you to “offset” pollution- meaning you don’t have to change anything in your operation more or less, just plant trees. Of course young trees are much worse at capturing carbon than older trees; and an acre of trees barely offsets a single transatlic flight, so given that the US FAA handles over 16 million flights yearly- over 10 million large passenger aircraft- while not all are transatlantic,
We can get an idea of flight hours and… long story short just to make a dent in airline emissions we’d need to plant several thousand acres or more of trees a day, every day, probably for the next century at least.
Of course if not maintained, these forests can also become fire hazards and release their carbon back to the…
.. ecosystem and likely plus some as well as particulates and other damage to the ecosystem and financial losses associated.
So there is alot of money tied up in trees though they aren’t necessarily the best or catch all solution, and the penalties and other taxes and fines as well as environmental business practices trees help corporations avoid are in the many billions total- so the government (or tax payers really..) are technically paying a lot towards planting trees even if it’s a tad roundabout.
Algae systems and other bio filters have shown some promise in carbon capture and other fields that could help sustainability. These technologies do still need development and so could be one possible “legitimate” investment as far as carbon capture technology. The price of land can be rather steep and when all factors like forestry are considered trees are rather expensive too- especially when planting them is a massive operation requiring insurance and such. The main benefits…
.. being sought with alternate approaches though are efficiency in capture and space, the ability to be integrated into existing developed areas/secondary benefits (for example: bio luminescent algae capture ranks could be used to emit light while capturing carbon. The cost is potentially slightly offset in terms of less power usage for cities and removing the costs of street light installation and service like costly underground cables etc. and it replaces a potential carbon source with one that captures carbon to boot.) while profit does stand to be made, in theory such technologies could be a “win win” for the planet and those looking for profits, but ultimately like so many environmental issues we need to have multiple tools at our disposal because sadly there generally isn’t one solution that works universally and without drawbacks.
Planting trees can be a complicated affair and large efforts literally create new eco systems- or fail to do so and then they all die since those trees need thriving ecosystems to supply their needs long term. Bringing trees in from afar or commercial farms brings in other issues too- plant diseases, non native bugs and all sorts of things that require careful checks and can always go wrong and lead to disaster. There are constraints as to land usage and other things to. But trees are one solution and we are looking for more.
Well, not exactly. My point has nothing to do with the companies and everything to do with where the money is sourced
We can get an idea of flight hours and… long story short just to make a dent in airline emissions we’d need to plant several thousand acres or more of trees a day, every day, probably for the next century at least.
Of course if not maintained, these forests can also become fire hazards and release their carbon back to the…
So there is alot of money tied up in trees though they aren’t necessarily the best or catch all solution, and the penalties and other taxes and fines as well as environmental business practices trees help corporations avoid are in the many billions total- so the government (or tax payers really..) are technically paying a lot towards planting trees even if it’s a tad roundabout.
Algae systems and other bio filters have shown some promise in carbon capture and other fields that could help sustainability. These technologies do still need development and so could be one possible “legitimate” investment as far as carbon capture technology. The price of land can be rather steep and when all factors like forestry are considered trees are rather expensive too- especially when planting them is a massive operation requiring insurance and such. The main benefits…
https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2019/08/15/mexican-start-up-fights-air-pollution-with-artificial-trees.html