Reddit's Former CEO Is Now In the Forest-Planting Business (fastcompany.com)
(Wednesday January 20, 2021 @05:00AM (BeauHD)
from the carbon-capture dept.)
- Reference: 0141281116
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/21/01/20/0110233/reddits-former-ceo-is-now-in-the-forest-planting-business
- Source link: https://www.fastcompany.com/90593687/reddits-former-ceo-is-now-in-the-forest-planting-business
[1]Terraformation , a startup led by Yishan Wong, former CEO of Reddit, [2]is demonstrating an approach to reforest the planet quickly enough to fight climate change . Fast Company reports:
> Trees can play a key role in capturing carbon at scale -- by one estimate, nearly a trillion hectares of land could feasibly be reforested, and those trees could potentially store more than 200 gigatons of carbon. But efforts at reforestation are moving too slowly. "Essentially, we need to scale the solution in about 10 years, so that there is time for the forest to mature and become a carbon sink of reasonable size to meet various nations' commitments to be net zero around 2040 or 2050," says Yishan Wong, CEO of the Hawaii-based startup, called Terraformation.
>
> One of the challenges the company identified was the lack of land: Some land that was originally forested is now covered by cities or used for farming. Other areas might not be available for sale. But there's a large amount of desertified land that is available. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification reports that around 4.7 billion acres on the planet -- about twice the size of China -- have been affected by drought or desertification, but could potentially be restored. Finding enough water to grow trees there is a challenge. But the folks at Terraformation believe that if desalinated water is used to irrigate seedlings, a restored forest will eventually be able to sustain itself.
>
> In Hawaii, the startup built the world's largest fully off-grid, solar-powered desalination system. With a half-acre of solar panels, there's enough power to desalinate around 34,000 gallons of water per day, taken from a well on the site. A drip irrigation system sends the water to the roughly 1,900 native trees and shrubs that have been planted in the area so far. As the forest grows, proving that the system works, the company is working to replicate the same idea around the world. It's creating seed banks that fit inside shipping containers and can store the millions of native seeds that are necessary for large planting projects. It's also building open-source software that groups can use to collect data and track progress after trees are planted.
[1] https://terraformation.com/
[2] https://www.fastcompany.com/90593687/reddits-former-ceo-is-now-in-the-forest-planting-business
> Trees can play a key role in capturing carbon at scale -- by one estimate, nearly a trillion hectares of land could feasibly be reforested, and those trees could potentially store more than 200 gigatons of carbon. But efforts at reforestation are moving too slowly. "Essentially, we need to scale the solution in about 10 years, so that there is time for the forest to mature and become a carbon sink of reasonable size to meet various nations' commitments to be net zero around 2040 or 2050," says Yishan Wong, CEO of the Hawaii-based startup, called Terraformation.
>
> One of the challenges the company identified was the lack of land: Some land that was originally forested is now covered by cities or used for farming. Other areas might not be available for sale. But there's a large amount of desertified land that is available. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification reports that around 4.7 billion acres on the planet -- about twice the size of China -- have been affected by drought or desertification, but could potentially be restored. Finding enough water to grow trees there is a challenge. But the folks at Terraformation believe that if desalinated water is used to irrigate seedlings, a restored forest will eventually be able to sustain itself.
>
> In Hawaii, the startup built the world's largest fully off-grid, solar-powered desalination system. With a half-acre of solar panels, there's enough power to desalinate around 34,000 gallons of water per day, taken from a well on the site. A drip irrigation system sends the water to the roughly 1,900 native trees and shrubs that have been planted in the area so far. As the forest grows, proving that the system works, the company is working to replicate the same idea around the world. It's creating seed banks that fit inside shipping containers and can store the millions of native seeds that are necessary for large planting projects. It's also building open-source software that groups can use to collect data and track progress after trees are planted.
[1] https://terraformation.com/
[2] https://www.fastcompany.com/90593687/reddits-former-ceo-is-now-in-the-forest-planting-business
If only forests had had us, all those years ago... (Score:3)
by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 )
All those millions of years ... before us, where they were totally helpless and couldn't spread saplings by themselves . . .
Oh the treemanity!
But at least somebody can compensate his bad feelings for not actually stopping the cutting down of ancient rain forest, and feel virtuous for replacing it with a otherwise dead monoculture that will be just as natural in, what, 800 years...
Replace coal first (Score:1)
by KimDotOrg ( 7630658 )
Instead of using solar panels to desalinate water and grow trees, use those solar panels for replacing current coal fired plants.
Trees are inefficient (around 3%) at converting solar energy even without the extra effort of desalinating water.
Re: (Score:2)
Did you really just misspell one of the most common and easiest words in the English language... Do you even American?
Re: (Score:2)
You don't come to America for literacy, you come here for FREEDOM.
Re: Donald Trump (Score:2)
That's like saying yours is the first car to never collide with another car... because it crashed and burned right into a car compactor at the first chance it got.