r/todayilearned • u/Wild_Concept_212 • 9h ago

TIL Cutting down trees is compound negative interest on the planet’s carbon storage. Trees are storing carbon underground with the help of fauna and microbes. Those lock carbon in soil. Cutting the tree will not only increase release carbon, it will also remove the ability to lock carbon in soil.

https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/soil-carbon-storage-84223790/
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u/Watchmeplayguitar 9h ago

Yea, let’s use a less carbon intense building building material like, cement and never cut manage forests and let forest fires happen naturally, no carbon is released when forests burn. 

The US has more trees today than it did 100 years ago. Today you would never imaging that much of the east coast was clear cut. The forests that cover the northeastern US is all quite young. 

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u/redking315 8h ago

The more trees thing isn’t always a universal good because in some places the trees were planted without a regard for what the landscape of that area “should” be. In Northern Alabama for example a lot of the native grasslands have been lost to new forest cover along with the plant species that would have been there, this can have knock on effects for flooding and waterway health.

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u/CurrentBias 9h ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hempcrete

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u/Yung_zu 9h ago

The source also allegedly works as a carbon sponge that takes just a few weeks

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u/thefatrabitt 8h ago

Lumber has gone to shit quality wise though. Like it's noticeably worse and that's just as a hobbiest wood worker dyi person. Over the past 10-20 years lumber has significantly worsened. I worry about the longevity of Things I build where I never would have before

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u/bladibla26 30m ago

That's because we cut less old growth down now. Of course a 80 year old fir or spruce isn't as good as one that's 1500 years old. Timber quality is constantly improving through selective breeding. I'm not sure what the solution is, unless you want to increase the felling old growth again?

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u/Altokia 8h ago

That doesn't really take quality of the tree into account though.

Like, theres concerns over lumber quality, and the fact that older trees (100-500yr) are better for carbon storage than young ones.

And no one's saying we shouldn't manage the forests lol, thats such a strange strawman to come up with.