Anytime carbon capture comes up, the conversation devolves into commenters saying the entire idea is dumb and trees already exist. I’d like to know more about the full life cycle of a tree and if the carbon it captures is permanent.
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The same amount is released in both situations. Or more exactly close to the same amount is resed because some of the carbon in the decomposing tree will still be in alive animals and microorganisms.
If you cut down the tree and store it in a way so it does not decay the carbon will not be released. Storage in this case can be in the wall of a building. Put trees in an oxygen-free environment, like covered with mud, they can in principle remain there forever. Coal is carbon from trees stored that way.
If you start with an area with no trees and plant trees the trees will contain lots of carbon when they are alive. Trees can live for hundreds of years and you can have new trees that grow and replace the one that dies, So a forest can bind a huge amount of carbon for its existence.
So planting a new forest will have an initial effect on CO2 level in the atmosphere and reduce the amount or more exactly today decrease the rate CO2 increase. This is positive for us and forest have more good environmental effects than just CO2 sequestration
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