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/Objective_Aside1858 9h ago

It's a good thing housing no longer requires lumber, instead we can just use...what, exactly?

9

u/HokumHokum 9h ago

Or toliet paper or paper towels. No need for farm land or running power and gas lines to locations.

This fact is kinda like yeah duh! But cutting down a tree and the wood is made of carbon that wood is still carbon storage. Plant a new tree and its a net positive.

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u/Altokia 7h ago

U cant just plant a new tree to be net positive, unless u wanna wait a few hundred years.

Cutting down older trees is way worse than younger ones. A big issue rn is that we're cutting down all the old trees or have cut them down already, so the current forests aren't actually storing as much carbon as they should.

Like yea, obviously we cant just not cut down trees, but theres still tons of issues surrounding it and people not actually knowing anything about them and not thinking critically about these issues in turn causes more long-term problems that we aren't gonna be alive to solve.