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Posted by surprisetalk 3 hours ago

So you want to use plants to reduce CO₂(dynomight.net)
75 points | 39 commentspage 2
tantalor 2 hours ago|
> Real plants do photosynthesis through a physical process

(nit) it is more accurate to call this a biological process, or chemical process

Saying "physical process" makes me think of inclined planes, free-body diagrams, and EM fields.

roughly 2 hours ago|
It's all physics at the bottom. Nature doesn't have APIs.
vitally3643 1 hour ago||
Yes, except parent is correct. Physcial and chemical mean very different and specific things in this context.

Calling photosynthesis a physical reaction is flatly incorrect no matter how you want to look at it. It is a physics reaction, sure, but "physical reaction" specifically means a Newtonian mechanical, reversible process at the macro scale.

A "chemical reaction" specifically means a (trivially) irreversible quantum/atomic reaction involving chemical bonds at the atomic/molecular scale.

stavros 1 hour ago||
I don't really understand this. First of all, you can just weigh the plant, and tell how much CO2 it has captured, right?

Second of all, what does it matter how much CO2 I produce? What's harmful is the additional CO2 that goes into the atmosphere for burning fossil fuels. All other CO2 is just in the same cycle that's been happening for ever.

EDIT: My child comment is dead and vouching doesn't resurrect it, but now the post makes sense, thanks for the clarification.

advisedwang 1 hour ago|
> what does it matter how much CO2 I produce

Because the author of the piece is worried about the CO2 levels in their home, not about global warming. (well maybe they are worried about global warming too, but that's not what this is about)

metalman 2 hours ago||
no, we are useing solar PV to eliminate the excess carbon bieng added to the atmosphere, and plants, rocks, and many other natural processes will return CO² levels to a more moderate level.
cvoss 2 hours ago||
Article is not about global atmospheric or climate phenomena, nor civilization scale industrial processes. It's about the CO^2 levels in your room due to your breathing.
metalman 1 hour ago||
oh no!

realy?

but since I live in a drafty farmhouse up on a windy hill beside the ocean, my room air and the atmosphere as whole have very similar compositions, and I will continue to treat conversations about both, the same as well.

pfdietz 2 hours ago|||
Getting CO2 back to preindustrial levels by natural processes may take 100,000 years, IIRC. There will be some drawdown, but the ocean surface waters will become more saturated with carbon and that will stall. Over a longer time scale, CO2 will be pumped down into the deeper ocean. The true drawdown will require mineralization and precipitation as calcium carbonate, a slow process. The fossil fuel CO2 emitted each year corresponds to the calcium added to the ocean by erosion over about 100 years.
toasty228 33 minutes ago||
> plants, rocks, and many other natural processes will return CO² levels to a more moderate level.

No... How can you be this delusional? This is cult like behavior: something will fix it somehow, eventually, don't ask about details

JungleGymSam 1 hour ago||
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benced 1 hour ago||
This seems trivial: if you could add enough plants to your room to reduce CO2, we could easily do the same thing at planet-scale and global warming wouldn't be an issue.
JTbane 2 hours ago|
Sadly I am a bit hopeless about climate change. Even if every person on earth dropped everything and started making biochar to be buried it would not sequester enough carbon to make a difference.
tito 43 minutes ago||
Hi! I work a lot with carbon dioxide removal systems. If every person on Earth dropped everything and started making biochar, it would definitely make a huge difference. Yes, we add a lot of carbon dioxide to the air of a year, but it’s doable to remove it. Humanity has taken on much bigger challenges before and succeeded. Now that’s not to say that it’s likely. I think it’s entirely unlikely that we avert the worst impacts of climate change unless something big changes. Thankfully, we get to choose what to work on every day, and I get to choose to work on that alongside inspiring people. (and yes, this isn’t what the article is about, but it seems like it’s what everyone is responding to)
toasty228 31 minutes ago||
> Humanity has taken on much bigger challenges before and succeeded.

Feel free to list them, we're basically reverse terra forming ourselves out of existence at that point, I don't think we've done anything even remotely close to that scale in such time frame

tito 27 minutes ago||
During World War II, the United States spent 40% of its GDP on the war. So we can spend big on things when we decide to.

That would be the equivalent of $12 trillion per year today, and we would clean up the climate in a jiffy with that. It would be a huge opportunity for job creation, manufacturing, innovation. It’s wild as a society we’ve convinced ourselves that stabilizing the climate is a cost instead of a massive opportunity.

SoftTalker 1 hour ago|||
This article isn't about climate change. It's about using houseplants to absorb the CO2 you exhale in your house.
andreaja 1 hour ago|||
It's going to be ok.
JungleGymSam 1 hour ago||
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