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Comment by nostromo | Hacker News Reader

I have this invention that runs on solar power and water, removes carbon from the atmosphere day and night, lowers the nearby temperature of the Earth dramatically, is bio-degradable, and best of all, it self replicates.

I'm calling it Tree and I'll sell you it for $0.

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Only problem is you would need 300+ million acres of new forest to offset human activity. 300 million acres is larger than Texas and California combined.

And then you need to deal with mature trees which aren't sequestering CO2 at any appreciable rate.

http://urbanforestrynetwork.org/benefits/air%20quality.htm

Planting a trillion trees could be our best strategy to tackle climate change. Can we do it?

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/planting-trillion-tree...

Because it's biodegradable, the carbon it removes is only temporary. Also you are lying when you say it removes carbon from the atmosphere day and night; some Trees remove it during the day, while others remove it at night, but none do both.

Forrests hold carbon permanently.

No, trees grow, thrive, die, and then decay releasing the CO2 they'd absorbed in life as well as nutrients used by other life. You have to bury the lumber from a forest far from oxygen to get it to remove CO2 permanently. Also, forests only counter ~1 watt of gasoline combustion per square meter or so. That's only enough to sustain a pre-industrial standard of living as it did, in fact, do Back In The Day.

A single tree cannot hold carbon forever. But, yes, a forrest can.

Yes, this is true; forests hold a little carbon as long as the forest survives.

Until there's a forrest fire

Can I buy from you 100k trees for $0?

I'm only selling the IP rights for $0, so yes, you may.

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