It's hard for people to visualize removing tons or billions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂). I propose we talk about CO₂ removal (#CDR) like a time machine (e.g., this machine will take us back 5 minutes). For example:
Q: How far back in time does planting 100 million trees take us?
A: If one mature tree takes up an average of 25 kg of CO₂ per year, then 100 million trees will take up 2.5 MtCO₂. That's a time machine that takes us back 33 minutes and 6 seconds in a year. It's not a lot.
@davidho OMG. What a number!
I actually need some effort to conceptualize this #number as well!
So 100 million is 1e8. It's a square, 10k #trees by 10k. Assuming a #pine plantation with ~2 m between trees, it's 20x20km of pines. A HUGE one!
And assuming that we then chop them all down and hide them in a mine, to sequester #carbon, it's some 30 years of growth = (by your calculation) 15 hours of #co2 release at a current rate? Not even a full day! omfg.
+bonifartius 𒂼𒄄
@ampanmdagaba @davidho
ok, we emit 37 040 000 000 tonnes CO2 yearly (37.04 billion tonnes).
given your numbers i come up with a forest of about 2434km edge length:
> puts [ expr sqrt((37040000000 / 2500000.0) * (20 * 20)) ]
2434.4198487524704
restore mother europe to be a continuous forest as she has been.
let's go.
