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sometimes I wonder if a massive worldwide tree planting initiative wouldn't be a better way to capture CO2

Benioff promotes the massive tree planting idea

https://www.wsj.com/articles/occidental-plans-to-s...


"Many industry experts doubt that direct-air capture can be done economically because the amounts of air that need to be scrubbed are so large. Operating the plants themselves will require massive amounts of energy, which will need to be emission-free to avoid defeating the purpose of the effort, they say.

Occidental executives said it would power the Permian plant with solar energy and additional renewable power from the grid, and it has also looked into potentially powering its plants with mini-nuclear reactors, according to people familiar with the matter. The company also said it is exploring using energy from natural-gas powered plants that capture their own CO2, an early-stages technology in which it has invested."

sometimes I wonder if a massive worldwide tree planting initiative wouldn't be a better way to capture CO2

I am no expert on this but I wonder does this only give you a one-time gain (until the new sustainable level of wood/timber/lumber on the earth is reached)?

At some point the tree will either die or be felled so what happens after that:
- will the tree be converted to lumber and remain forever in that state? Some portion of it perhaps for a long time but unlikely to be forever.
- will it ultimately be burned releasing all of the carbon again as CO2?
- or will it decay releasing much of the carbon as CO2 or CH4 with some small proportion settling to become a new sedimentary layer that will ultimately form new buried hydrocarbon.

I suppose my main point is that there is probably some carbon capture benefit for trees over other plant species but I think the benefits are often [grossly??] overstated.

StevnFool

all valid points. The trees don't need to be harvested. Of course they won't last forever.

It will take quite a bit of energy to run carbon capture so that is not a cost less solution.

I recently read about what is needed to control and negate greenhouse gas pollution in order to limit the environmental damage. The short answer is everything that we can throw at the problem. That's partly because we cannot eliminate fossil fuels fast enough, if ever. The solution includes carbon capture both in the simple form by capturing it where it is produced by some industrial process and the hard form where it is removed from the atmosphere. I'm more optimistic about OXY playing a role in carbon capture.

I'd like a better understanding of what Buffett sees in OXY. Aside from the recovery in the stock price from the 2020 lows, the ten-year chart is negative.

Shaun

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