About passive houses and plastic bags and styrofoam fur

...yes, back. And good for you if you ever treat yourself to it. We, on the other hand, here I can really say we, did not want it. Not me because of asthma. Neither she nor I, because we like to have windows open so much. (That would be totally counterproductive for the passive house), and because neither of us wanted a controlled residential ventilation artificial ventilation. And because with what we saved, we can heat well and for a long time, since a standard suburban proletarian palace like ours doesn't consume that much either. And then... we are dead. Karsten

To my two physics animals here. That’s what I mean with the balance. Think in terms of reimbursement. Burn 100 liters of oil. You would now have to reimburse 100 liters of oil. Impossible. Stupid. Burn 10 cubic meters of pine. You would now have to reimburse that many cubic meters of pine. Ah. That works. Planting a tree works. Clear? Or too easy for both of you?

Or too easy for both of you?

I believe so. You ignored the time factor again. Burning a tree and a tree growing is a time shift from 1 hour to 80 years. In the long run, that doesn't work.

Or is that too easy for both of you?

No. Everyone can do it in their own time. But not all at once. Then it doesn't work. That was my point.

The reason is the time gap: What is burned in 30 minutes takes 30 years to be reabsorbed. It only balances out if not too many are burned at the same time, otherwise the whole planting comes too late.

You would now have to reimburse 100 liters of oil. That's not possible.

It is possible. Plant a tree and wait 100 million years. Done. Explain why tree growth over 100 years is okay, but tree to oil over 100 million years is not! So you do have time in mind after all?

I think so. You ignored the time factor again. Burning a tree and a tree growing is a time shift from 1 hour to 80 years. That won’t work in the long run.

But my planted pine doesn’t start absorbing CO2 only after 80 years, it starts doing so from day 1, as long as it doesn’t die on me. - Right?

Karsten, you have taken out a CO2 credit if you offset every meter of burned wood by planting trees. The CO2 is only "repaid" when the tree has grown to almost the same size as the burned one. It takes decades. The repayment begins from the germination of the seed, right.

But for the climate problem, time plays a role. Repaying too slowly is not seen as good in this sense.