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Dead trees keep surprisingly large amounts of carbon out of atmosphere

(phys.org)
91 points PaulHoule | 1 comments | 14 Apr 25 14:23 UTC | HN request time: 0.241s | source
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gilbetron ◴[14 Apr 25 18:07 UTC] No.43684331[source]▶
I still like: Grow plants/trees -> create plastics from them -> use plastics -> bury plastics forever

Otherwise plants/trees are just a type of carbon battery - pull carbon, burn for fuel, carbon goes back out, gets pulled back in again.

replies(1): >>43684399 #
augusto-moura ◴[14 Apr 25 18:13 UTC] No.43684399[source]▶
Do we need to grow plants to create plastics anyway? Wouldn't be better to just capture co2 and convert them to plastics (or other long lifespan products) directly
replies(4): >>43684458 #>>43685254 #>>43687326 #>>43690523 #
1. gilbetron ◴[14 Apr 25 19:30 UTC] No.43685254[source]▶
As my peer comment hinted at, I think "just capture co2" is the part that plants are really good at. However, yes, the general approach is: capture co2 -> make plastics -> use plastics -> bury plastics forever. And "capture co2" can be "grow trees" or "grow algae" or "create a machine that pulls carbon out of the air" or whatever :)