Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> It takes about 1,025 trees to offset the average American's emissions [1]

That's half of dry land area:

    earth population * 1 hectare / person / sum earth continent area
    0.516 (2019 estimate) [2]
that's fertile half:

    world arable land
    ≈ 0.46 × land area on the earth ( 1.4912×10^8 km^2 ) [3]
Insufficient.

[1] https://savingnature.com/offset-your-carbon-footprint-carbon...

[2] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=earth+population+*+1+h...

[3] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=world+arable+land



I would assume that the average American is emiting way more than the average human, so you can't just multiply it up by earth's population.


And forests are different:

> Northeast, maple–beech–birch forests

> 25 year old forest: 1,760 lbs of CO2 per acre per year

> Northeast, white and red pine forests

> 25 year old forest: 9,826 lbs of CO2 per acre per year [1]

With global CO2 emissions [2]:

    35 billion t / (2000 lbs / acre)
    1.561×10^8 km^2 (square kilometers)
    ≈ land area on the earth ( 1.4912×10^8 km^2 ) [3]
maple–beech–birch forests would not cut.

    35 billion t / (10000 lbs / acre)
    3.123×10^7 km^2 (square kilometers)
    ≈ 0.46 × total area of crop land on Earth (2012 estimate) ( ≈ 2.62×10^7 mi^2 ) [4]
pine if used on half of crop land. That's managed forest, no wild forests allowed.

[1] http://medcraveonline.com/FREIJ/FREIJ-02-00040.pdf

[2] https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions

[3] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=35+billion+t+%2F+%2820...

[4] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=35+billion+t+%2F+%2810...


https://ourworldindata.org/per-capita-co2

It's true. The USA's Carbon Emissions are horrific (I was going to say borderline genocidal) compared to even the rest of the west.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: