[GravityLab]

1. The average tree's lifespan is a lot longer than 5 years. It's more like 300-400 years. I've not seen any sources saying that half of all planted trees are dead within 5 years. Even if that is true, 5 years is enough time to keep replanting and maintaining the total number of trees much higher. People can tend to the trees they plant.

2. I got my number for CO2 capture per tree from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Arbor Day Foundation, and the European Environment Agency.

3. I don't think the wildfires materially impact the calculus.

4. There is a lot of land available for reforesting. This is not the same as saying that we should take back land that is used for farming. I would say that agriculture is going to innovate too, with vertical farms and more efficient usage of land where land is still necessary. We can start with land that is already available for reforesting rather than starting with squabbling over land that is now already used as farmland. Making farmland more efficient and innovating with vertical farms will let markets take care of inefficient and unnecessary land usage.

5. Planting trees for CO2 capture is a temporary solution. Eventually machines will sequester CO2 far more efficiently. Planting trees in general is nice for many other benefits too, not just the carbon capture. But yes, planting more trees is not the only thing we need to do.

[btilly]

https://www.earth.com/news/half-of-plants-used-in-reforestat... gives a reference for half of planted trees dead in 5 years.

Your CO2 capture figure is widely quoted, including in those places. But can you find a scientific paper that it goes back to? I'm a little wary of figures that I can't find a real reference for.