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points by gwjeglkefnf3 15 hours ago | 0 comments
What does the total number of trees in Finland have to do with the amount of time it would take to grow 250K tree back?
[–] alienbaby 15 hours ago
I think he means, if an average tree adds say ~10g of wood per day, I had 20B trees and cut down 250000 of them, how long do the remaining trees take to grow back the wood that was lost from the trees that were cut down.

Turns out, if the trees lost are about 2000kg, it takes about ~ 2.5 days.

[–] mynameisash 14 hours ago
Except:

a. Even if this model were reasonable, removing trees isn't ameliorated by letting them grow back in 2.5 days. As an analogy, if I steal $100 from you, it's not reasonable for me to say, "But it only takes you x hours to earn that $100 back." No, you're out that $100.

b. Tree growth (eg, carbon sequestration) is non-linear. The first year of growth of a tree is much less productive than the 50th year.