# Are empress trees a viable climate change solution? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 24, 2019, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-empress-trees-a-viable-climate-change-solution/839168 "2019-08-24T18:09:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-empress-trees-a-viable-climate-change-solution/839168/41 "2019-08-26T14:52:16Z")
If what we want is carbon sequestration then yes it is because hemp does that very well and incidentally also furnishes a plethora of biomass to be used in various ways. And whoever thinks hemp is hard to work with must be pretty fussy because that’s what sailors have been making sails out of for centuries and seem to be able to manage that pretty well. I’ve worked with pure hemp fabric as well as various blends and have had zero problem with it–it has a similar hand to cotton at heavier weights but with stronger fiber and it wears a lot better and longer. I’ve never had a hemp garment wear through at the knees or get weak along a seam like cotton does. And there was no cotton gin for cotton until someone decided to make one and before the cotton gin cotton was a pretty bitchy plant to harvest and process too. Thing is, the rest of the world is growing hemp for industrial uses and doing just fine with it and we can too. Better hemp than endless acres of Roundup soaked corn any old day. No wonder half this country has leaky gut and autoimmune disorders. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-empress-trees-a-viable-climate-change-solution/839168/42 "2019-08-26T15:04:17Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > And whoever thinks hemp is hard to work with must be pretty fussy because that’s what sailors have been making sails out of for centuries and seem to be able to manage that pretty well. I’ve worked with pure hemp fabric as well as various blends and have had zero problem with it–it has a similar hand to cotton at heavier weights but with stronger fiber and it wears a lot better and longer. I’ve never had a hemp garment wear through at the knees or get weak along a seam like cotton does. Sailors really had no choice, but that didn’t make it easy. A sailmaker’s palm was invented to just deal with several of the work issues. And I would call a guy who pushes a needle through two 1/4" layers of leather on a regular basis ‘fussy’, nor would I call a profession historical sewer who has dealt with multiple varieties of fabric ‘fussy’. > [@](#): > > And there was no cotton gin for cotton until someone decided to make one and before the cotton gin cotton was a pretty bitchy plant to harvest and process too. That would be correct. But even in our modern age there really isn’t a solution, and I doubt a solution would be affordable for farmers to use for a small fringe crop. Right now they have to harvest with combines that get jammed & dulled by hemp. > [@](#): > > Thing is, the rest of the world is growing hemp for industrial uses and doing just fine with it and we can too. Better hemp than endless acres of Roundup soaked corn any old day. No wonder half this country has leaky gut and autoimmune disorders. The rest of the world has had industrial hemp for ages, yet it really hasn’t gone beyond being a specialty crop. Why is that? Hmmm. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-empress-trees-a-viable-climate-change-solution/839168/43 "2019-08-26T15:12:08Z")
I don’t know if [this pdf](https://mediamanager.sei.org/documents/Publications/SEI-Report-EcologicalFootprintAndWaterAnalysisOfCottonHempAndPolyester-2005.pdf) of a study from 2005 still holds but it appears that organic cotton is the best for CO2 but all types of plant materials are way better than polyester. I wonder if we could implement a tax on polyester material to encourage plant-based materials of any type. This in itself would sequester the carbon in the medium term, and we are in enough of a crisis that we need medium as well as long-term sequestration. ---
**Author:** ![Orwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dfb087/32.png) [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-empress-trees-a-viable-climate-change-solution/839168/44 "2019-08-26T16:18:44Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > As far as coal goes, that’s actually one of the brighter spots in the climate change solution. Whenever a utility proposes building a new coal burning power plant, some lawyers from the Sierra Club’s [Beyond Coal](https://content.sierraclub.org/coal/) program show up at the PUC’s meeting about it and point out that state law requires utilities to use the cheapest power available and coal is not it. So that was a big success, at least in the US. But coal power is also being reduced in Europe, although more in western Europe than east. > > So while we can’t directly close coal mining companies, a lot of them are on the verge of going bankrupt, if they haven’t already, as the coal business in general shrinks. Does the Sierra Club show up and stop or slow coal power plants in China and India? Because those two countries are increasing their number of coal power plants, at the same time the US and Europe is switching to cleaner fuels. FWIW, China burns far more coal than the US, and India will probably surpass the US not too far in the future. So, I’m not really disputing what you wrote, as you do specifically mention the US and Europe cutting back on coal power. But when you look at the entire world, with many countries apparently not worrying too much about pollution or carbon, that’s kind of like praising fuel economy gains in cars, while trucks make up more and more vehicle sales. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-empress-trees-a-viable-climate-change-solution/839168/45 "2019-08-26T18:21:20Z")
From what I’ve gathered, China has now stopped approving new coal power plants. There may be some still in the works that have approval, I don’t know. However, to counterbalance this, the Belt and Road Initiative is a Chinese foreign aid program that encourages other countries to, among other things, put up coal power plants. So China’s a mixed bag at best. Don’t know that much about India, except that some states are at least trying to increase the amount of renewables in their energy mix, but it’s not completely successful. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-empress-trees-a-viable-climate-change-solution/839168/46 "2019-08-26T20:42:13Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > And whoever thinks hemp is hard to work with must be pretty fussy because that’s what sailors have been making sails out of for centuries and seem to be able to manage that pretty well. It’s hard then to understand why hemp hasn’t significantly caught on, what with the huge sailing ship market and all. > [@](#): > > Better hemp than endless acres of Roundup soaked corn any old day. No wonder half this country has leaky gut and autoimmune disorders. [No crop is “soaked” with Roundup](https://www.agdaily.com/crops/farm-babe-glyphosate-on-wheat/). _“It’s important to understand that the dose makes the poison of any chemical and that herbicides affect enzymes found in plants, not mammals or insects. And by no means are the crops “drenched,” as some activists like to phrase it. Wheat would be sprayed with glyphosate at a rate of around 12 ounces per acre, equivalent to about a soda can’s worth on an area of land the size of a football field!”_ As previously pointed out, hemp growing is not immune from needing pesticide applications. And it doesn’t help your cause to promote [quackery about “leaky gut”](https://badgut.org/information-centre/a-z-digestive-topics/leaky-gut-syndrome/) and false information about the etiology and frequency of autoimmune diseases. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-empress-trees-a-viable-climate-change-solution/839168/47 "2019-08-26T20:57:39Z")
Getting back to the original issue, a bit of advice for the OP. When you come across a site named nextbigfuture dot com, and chunks of the story read like they were written by Google Translate… > [@](#): > > Empress trees provide hardwood lumber in 7 to 10 years. The World Tree Carbon Offset Program is taking planting the Empress Splendor tree. The Empress tree is a wet wood which makes it naturally fire and insect resistant. It is a non-invasive, hybrid species, that can grow in many parts of the United States and Canada, where its primary use is lumber. > > Planting 30% more forests in the US and Canada using Empress Splendor trees would offset all of the global CO2 problem. … it’s probably not the most credible source of information available. [Professional foresters weigh in here.](http://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=36797.0) ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-empress-trees-a-viable-climate-change-solution/839168/48 "2019-08-26T23:04:40Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > If what we want is carbon sequestration then yes it is because hemp does that very well and incidentally also furnishes a plethora of biomass to be used in various ways. Dude, you sound like those boomer ladies who sell essential oils. Like, BigPharma doesn’t want me selling my lemongrass essence because it competes with their antidepressants! I don’t understand people who can’t just have fun getting stupid stoned without insisting that we also wear it and eat it and fix climate change with it. It’s just drugs. Drugs are fun. That’s what they’re made for. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-empress-trees-a-viable-climate-change-solution/839168/49 "2019-08-26T23:56:01Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I don’t understand people who can’t just have fun getting stupid stoned without insisting that we also wear it and eat it and fix climate change with it. It’s just drugs. Drugs are fun. That’s what they’re made for. I’ve never felt the lack of a “like” button until just now. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-empress-trees-a-viable-climate-change-solution/839168/50 "2019-08-27T01:01:30Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > If what we want is carbon sequestration then yes it is because hemp does that very well and incidentally also furnishes a plethora of biomass to be used in various ways. [So does algae](http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/view/931/biomass-from-algae/), and it’s even easier to grow than hemp! ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-empress-trees-a-viable-climate-change-solution/839168/51 "2019-08-27T23:13:14Z")
Above someone asked about the status of coal plants around the world. I found [this article](https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-plans-for-new-coal-are-changing-around-the-world) gives a summary of the current state of affairs. ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2019, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-empress-trees-a-viable-climate-change-solution/839168/52 "2019-08-28T12:40:19Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Above someone asked about the status of coal plants around the world. I found [this article](https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-plans-for-new-coal-are-changing-around-the-world) gives a summary of the current state of affairs. That’s a great article however I am not sure if it captures coal plants producing chemicals. I think that article only takes into coal burning plants producing power. Coal is used worldwide but predominantly in China to make chemicals (Methanol, Ammonka, etc) which are subsequently used to make many products we use. Cite : [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261918318415](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261918318415) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2019, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-empress-trees-a-viable-climate-change-solution/839168/53 "2019-08-28T15:36:00Z")
No the article was focused on coal burning power plants because those emit lots of CO[sub]2[/sub]. I could be wrong, but don’t expect chemical plants to emit that much carbon dioxide, although they probably do emit other greenhouse gases in lesser amounts. ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-empress-trees-a-viable-climate-change-solution/839168/54 "2019-08-28T15:44:41Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > No the article was focused on coal burning power plants because those emit lots of CO[sub]2[/sub]. I could be wrong, but don’t expect chemical plants to emit that much carbon dioxide, although they probably do emit other greenhouse gases in lesser amounts. Quote from the linked article above : “The estimate shows that the total CO2 emission of the coal chemical industry in 2015 was 607 million tonnes (Mt), accounting for approximately 5.71% of China’s total CO2 emission. The figure is higher than the total annual CO2 emission of a country such as Canada (555 Mt) or Brazil (486 Mt).” ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2019, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-empress-trees-a-viable-climate-change-solution/839168/55 "2019-08-28T15:59:08Z")
Sorry, I meant that any single chemical plant doesn’t produce much carbon dioxide compared to a single power plant. I expect there’s lots more chemical plants than power plants. So the industry has obviously been flying under the radar as far as emissions go. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-empress-trees-a-viable-climate-change-solution/839168.md?page=2)