In order to actually sequester carbon from trees you then need to cut them down and use or burry the lumber in a place where it will rest for the rest of time. Besides we would need vastly more space, water, and firefighting to even approach real offsets. Trees are nice for shade and some ecosystems but they don’t really have anything to do with climate change beyond burning up faster.
There’s hydrocarbons underground that have been there for millions of years. Used to be in the air, but now it’s not.
Now it’s burned as jet fuel (releasing that cow back into the air)
If trees pull that co2 info their wood, what happens to that wood in 10,000 years? It’s going to be in the atmosphere again (bacteria and fungi break down dead wood)
So the only way to do it, using trees, would be to burry them after maturation and make sure they don’t rot. And you’d need to do this to capture the gigs tonnes of co2 that is released (that’s a lot of trees…and a lot of digging…)
Or just a rate sufficient to remove and sequester 2x the amount.
Or require them to use 100% sustainable fuel to accelerate the development of such fuels.
Carbon sequestration is not possible right now or even for the foreseeable future.
Forcing jets to use renewable resources is a good one be should aim to ban private short and medium haul flights in general.
Are trees not sufficient for carbon sequestration?
In order to actually sequester carbon from trees you then need to cut them down and use or burry the lumber in a place where it will rest for the rest of time. Besides we would need vastly more space, water, and firefighting to even approach real offsets. Trees are nice for shade and some ecosystems but they don’t really have anything to do with climate change beyond burning up faster.
Think of the carbon life cycle.
There’s hydrocarbons underground that have been there for millions of years. Used to be in the air, but now it’s not.
Now it’s burned as jet fuel (releasing that cow back into the air)
If trees pull that co2 info their wood, what happens to that wood in 10,000 years? It’s going to be in the atmosphere again (bacteria and fungi break down dead wood)
So the only way to do it, using trees, would be to burry them after maturation and make sure they don’t rot. And you’d need to do this to capture the gigs tonnes of co2 that is released (that’s a lot of trees…and a lot of digging…)