Gestalt on 27/9/2006 at 07:11
Quote Posted by Ultraviolet
If we did some research to find out what kinds of plants produce the most oxygen and/or consume the most carbon dioxide, couldn't every man populate his property with these plants?
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoculture) Not (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species) really. A serious, widespread effort to replenish the world's plant population would be quite helpful, but there's a lot of other stuff to keep in mind beyond which plants process carbon dioxide the most efficiently.
RyushiBlade on 27/9/2006 at 17:43
Scientists found evidence that when trees sprout, they produce several green house gases--including methane and carbon dioxide. If this is correct, the short term effects of planting a large number of trees would be bad. But the good stuff probably outweighs the bad.
Pyrian on 27/9/2006 at 18:31
Quick note: all aerobic life (which is virtually everything except some oddball bacteria) gives off carbon dioxide, however, ALL of the carbon dioxide emitted from this respiration is carbon dioxide that was previously removed from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. That's a closed loop, folks.
Gingerbread Man on 27/9/2006 at 18:58
Well, it kinda HAS to be a closed loop... the planet's airtight.
Pyrian on 27/9/2006 at 23:45
Quote Posted by Gingerbread Man
Well, it kinda HAS to be a closed loop... the planet's airtight.
The atmosphere itself is not. When we dig up carbon and pump it into the atmosphere, that's a whole different ballgame than when we respire what plants
recently took out. The crust has a carbon cycle, too, but it happens over eons.
