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Comment by andrewstuart | Hacker News Reader

I wish I wasn't so skeptical of paying for carbon offsets etc.

I'd do it if it was paying for trees and I actually believed that the payments results in more trees (which I am also skeptical about).

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You're right to be skeptical [1]. In the end it's better than nothing but it's probably not the most effective method and often times (especially with big corporations) these are bought out just as an excuse to pollute more. Even individual people are likely to use this as an excuse to put off the lifestyle changes (such as buying a new gas car instead of switching to electric or buying fewer clothes or cutting down on electricity/gas usage or installing solar panels).

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_woAb8tZ62U

It sounds like this is about direct carbon cature, not carbon offsets.

Have you looked into how ineffective planting trees will be when it comes to carbon capture? I don’t remember the exact numbers but some insane number of trees planted and grown would barely make a dent in the average temps. I learned this recently so I just thought I’d mention it.

Not to say planting trees isn’t good in other ways, but we’ll definitely have to come up with more creative ideas for carbon capture and storage if we want to help climate change. Plus we just need to stop it at the source and keep advancing solar and battery tech.

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