Comments by "dbergerac" (@dbergerac9632) on "PBS Terra" channel.

  1. It sounds like the forests can "catch and release" a lot of carbon which is already present, so no net increase in carbon, yet the forest is made of captured carbon. By these standards, I can fish a lake and as long as I put back more of the fish than I keep, I am "increasing" the fish in the lake. That IS true in that moment, but it is still a net loss of fish. Trees are made of carbon; plant them. Her facts are sound but her interpretation is biased. Is she REALLY going to have us believe that a barren desert is better than a young forest? She lost me with "We don't HAVE twenty years for the trees to grow!" Yeah, we really do. If you put more CO2 into the atmosphere, the plants WILL grow and increase. I grew a jug of algae in the lab and something magical happened when I added a little bit of CO2, It grew out of control, making lots of O2. If you feed it, it will grow.
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  2. Trees have respiration. So do I. If I breathe in air and exhale CO2 and O2, I am not increasing the O2 except in the moment. I am decreasing the O2 in my space ( room, submarine, planet ) The trees do indeed release some of the absorbed CO2, they do NOT create it. Trees reduce the net CO2 in their space (Forest, Garden, Planet ). She was very clever with how forests release CO2, but kept to herself where the forests GOT the CO2.
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