I agree wholeheartedly regarding releasing carbon from the existing warehouses, those being primarily coal and oil deposits. But we can't refill those warehouses with any current technology.
We can build a bunch of USS Constitutions, though! (Hey, she's still afloat, which totally one-ups the HMS Victory).
As far as planting, there are very efficient ways to accomplish that. Which you choose depends on your purpose. I recently saw a technology which dropped seedling from an aircraft at relatively low altitude. Or you just use old farming technology. If you're planting seedlings, the energy cost is pretty low per tree. Even lower if you use seeds.
I've not heard the methane isssue before. I'll read up on it.
Victory is I believe older than the USS Constitution.
Trees probably aren't actually the best choice if you just want to trap a lot of CO2 and not necessarily build things from the resultant material. There are I believe other types of vegetation which grow faster/absorb CO2 relatively faster.
Saw one scheme for essentially passing power plant exhause gases through water filled with algae. Plan being the algae would use most of the CO2 and could then be turned into alchol. Seems the biggest problem is getting light to the algae, it tends to stick to the sides of the container/light pipes etc blocking light.
I was off by a factor of 40. The CO2 uptake was over 40 years, so to completely compensate for the annual CO2 release, you'd need 400 billion trees, just for the US alone. Since the US consumes ~1/6 of the total world supply of energy, you'd need 2400 billion trees to stop the growth in CO2 in the atmosphere.
IR, I'll take you at your word on the math. At ~500 trees per acre (a health forest, give or take) and 640 acres per sq mile I figure 1.25 million square miles. That about 1100 miles square. Doable, but not necessarily practical. A start, perhaps.
Volunteers for a "Johnny pineseeed"?
Actually, I'm sure monocots (sp?) such as bamboo could do a better job of carbon sequestration than trees. Would they be as useful afterwards, though?
KENAT: The HMS Victory is dry docked! Whats the point of having a commisioned ship permanently in dry dock? Crazy Brits! Our Constitution, now theres and old boat that floats- Here's to Old Ironsides!
Yes, the Constitution is still a commissioned vessel. She just we through an extensive overhaul several years ago to correct a problem with "hogging". After the yard work she made trip around Boston Harbor with a full Navy Crew.
But the same question remains: what is the total carbon footprint? not just its fuel economy.
The problem caused by all the hype about the climate is that the wrong parameter is being measured and as a consequence these initiatives, unless they can project an even lower carbon footprint than conventional manufactured and powered vehicles as a consequence of a sufficiently sized market for these "green" vehicles, is that they can make the situation worse and not better.
FYI.. I started thread730-172835 with links to a model known as GREET that evaluates the impact of plug-in EVs and other advanced technologies and fuels.
