I often hear science-adjacent folks stating that a tree needs to be 30 years old before it starts absorbing CO₂, usually paired with the statement that it’s therefore pointless to start planting tons of trees now for slowing climate change....
The mass of a tree is composed of carbon fixed from CO2, so it doesn’t make any physical sense for a tree to grow at all without absorbing CO2. This is nonsense, trees begin fixing CO2 the moment they start growing.
[Solved] Trees supposedly take 30 years *before* they absorb CO₂. Why?
I often hear science-adjacent folks stating that a tree needs to be 30 years old before it starts absorbing CO₂, usually paired with the statement that it’s therefore pointless to start planting tons of trees now for slowing climate change....