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173 points rbanffy | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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bitwize ◴[] No.42127852[source]
My wife actually has established a cheap, energy-efficient facility for converting CO2 into useful materials right in our yard.

She planted a garden.

I was thinking about that the other day, how our beautiful trees, flowers, and bushes draw a few minerals from the soil, but are really mainly knitted together from the components of water and CO2.

Yes, yes, I know, planting more trees won't do much about the greenhouse gas problem at scale, but the only thing that will are the three P's: powerdown, permaculture, population control. I do not expect industry to solve the problem industry created in a way that doesn't create more problems.

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zelphirkalt ◴[] No.42128001[source]
> Yes, yes, I know, planting more trees won't do much about the greenhouse gas problem at scale, but the only thing that will are the three P's: powerdown, permaculture, population control. I do not expect industry to solve the problem industry created in a way that doesn't create more problems.

But I am always wondering: Couldn't we have planted forests, from which we take the grown trees and put them back down under the earth, in some old mining facilities or dig some tunnels that lead deep down and put that stuff there? Or perhaps build lots of long term use furniture from the trees? Anything, except burning them or letting them rod? Then we would use nature's mechanism for capturing and prevent releasing, by putting it deep down, or making meaningful long term use of it.

And couldn't this be done on a bigger scale as well?

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1. tmtvl ◴[] No.42128413[source]
The problem is we're putting millions of tons of carbon into the air every year and it takes a while for a freshly planted tree to reach a ton of carbon stored. So you would need to plant millions of trees per year and take care of them for years before you can chop them down and bury them.
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2. zelphirkalt ◴[] No.42128735[source]
So I guess it is simply too slow, or alternatively, we would all be busy in that business and not do anything else any longer?
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3. NewJazz ◴[] No.42143382[source]
Simpler: nobody will pay you to buy land, grow trees, and bury them. You will get paid for farming, logging, mining, drilling, and much more.