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Comment by yitchelle | Hacker News Reader

Wondering this amount of extra trees will help with global warming as well.

While it's a valid concern to worry about changing albedo of part of continent, that minor effect will be dwarfed by trees capturing CO2 and creating O2 during photosynthesis.

Not to mention trees IIRC can cause clouds to form and thus bring more water to the region.

IIRC it does not help because the trees will decay into CO2 after they die. So you'd basically have to bury the dead treas if you want to prevent the carbon from entering the atmosphere again.

If the forest dies and is replaced by desert again, you're right. Assuming the forest survives, dying trees will be replaced by new one, and the result is that new forest areas means more biomass to keep CO2 sequestered on an ongoing basis.

Carbon is also captured by turning trees into something else, like lumber or paper. A wood house can keep several tons of carbon locked up for a few centuries.

IIRC it does not help because the trees will decay into CO2 after they die

Only if you let them rot. If you were to burn the trees then you'd have a useful energy sourse and a significant amount (50% for an open fire, up to 90% in a specially designed burner) of the carbon would be turned in to charcoal which doesn't rot down to CO2 and be returned to the ground as fertiliser for the next round of trees.

Rotting trees do not turn back into the same quantity of CO2. Biomass is sequestered and buried in soil.

Seriously, this is like, fossil fuels 101 people.

Why the downvote, it was a serious question.

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