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publicdefecation t1_j5yqbf9 wrote

Reply to comment by DocWsky in Researchers unveil the least costly carbon capture system to date - down to $39 per metric ton. by heavy-metal-goth-gal

Practically speaking trees won't grow fast enough to offset our emissions. We would need to plant 200 billion trees to stop climate change.

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2dozen22s t1_j5zamh4 wrote

Bamboo grows ridiculously fast and might be better suited tbh Could grow that, dry it, mix it with sand, and fill in old open pit mines.

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hearnia_2k t1_j60jips wrote

You'd have to be careful though, as cutting it and shipping it to the mines, placing it, etc would have pretty high emissions potentially.

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2dozen22s t1_j60yllo wrote

Drying the ground bamboo in a high temp greenhouse would reduce the weight substantially. You'd basically be shipping fuel around. Bamboo is already 50% carbon.

Then mixing can be done on-site and gathered locally to reduce carried weight further.

Grinding can be solar powered, green house is sunlight, cutting can be electric powertools, etc.

Emission wise its probably very sound, but maintaining and replanting bamboo which can grow like, 1m a day, might be the hard part in terms of scaling things up.

(Edit: a 100m2 area with 25% area utilization should yield 8750kg of bamboo a day. Or 4.375 tons of carbon.

Idk how accurate those numbers are, and that's a best guess using online resources)

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Fivethenoname t1_j61npqq wrote

But they do offset emissions/contribute to drawdown and there are many other functions that forest and tree cover provide to maintain critical ecosystem functions. Idiots looking for a panacea to ecosystem service degradation and torpedoing good ideas for not being such a panacea are literally holding us back from taking steps in the correct direction. You're expertise in this field must be minimal if you are criticizing planting trees. I understand that criticizing other people is one way to get a seat at the table if you don't have any ideas of your own, but criticism for criticism sake is unwanted.

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publicdefecation t1_j61p722 wrote

I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying. I'm not against planting trees. I think they're important.

Just like you, I don't think there's one solution to fixing climate change which means we can't dismiss technological solutions by saying "Why don't we just plant trees?"

We have to plant trees AND do everything else possible to reduce emissions and sequester carbon.

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