There’s a quiet movement afoot to replace Florida’s palms with native flora that suck carbon out of the air (story here).
Scientists say it’s hard to find a tree that’s less effective at carbon capture than palm trees. The average Florida palm tree consumes only 5 lbs. of CO2 a friggin’ year. And because an average car spits out 10,000 lbs. of CO2 a year, you’d need 2,000 palm trees per car to neutralize Florida’s vehicle emissions.
So what? Well, because, “With atmospheric carbon dioxide levels today higher than at any point in at least the past 800,000 years, … the Earth needs to remove it or humans have to stop adding it.” Which, of course, we won’t (will you stop driving today?).
Hence, scientists are “working on solutions to capture and safely contain atmospheric carbon. One approach is … planting trees” that capture and store carbon — pines, cedars, oaks, mahogany, etc. — i.e., good boatbuilding lumber. (We need more wood sailboats, but I’ll write about that in another post.)
So the plan in Miami Beach and West Palm Beach is to replace palms with real trees after they’re knocked down by hurricanes, drunk drivers, people running from police in stolen cars, or fall of old age.
West Palm Beach has a climate manager (how did that get past Governor DeSantis?), who’s in charge of giving away 1,000 plantable trees a year, which don’t include palms. She explains, “We do not use our canopy tree fund to plant palms.”
Woke! You can already see where this is likely to go. Soon, every time a hurricane blows onshore, Trumper mobs will form human chains around palms to protect them from the evil liberal winds. Newly planted native trees will be vandalized, and then banned. Tucker Carlson will rant about “CO2 freedom.” DeSantis will symbolically punch holes in the catalytic converter of his state car.
I don’t want to get caught up in palm tree politics and ideology; all I want is the boatbuilding lumber. And somebody who can build wood sailboats (they still exist, in smaller numbers, in Maine and Port Townsend, Washington). And the money it takes — lots, that’s why they’re called “lottery boats” — to pay for premium air-dried boatbuilding lumber and thousands of hours of highly skilled craftsman labor. (I can dream, can’t I?)
Photo #1: Useless for anything but looking at.
Photo #2: At my age, useless for anything but looking at.
Palm trees make great boats, you may need a native Polynesian from Tahiti to build it. You are so woke in insisting on only western boat building techniques. Thor Hyerdale must be turning in his grave. [Edited comment.]
I wouldn’t call any raft a “boat” or “great.” I’d call it a last resort before swimming.