My understanding of the carbon sequestration through forests problem is that it's more about the rate of storage and the land required, and one of the huge issues is churn - we cut down X amount of forest for farmland here, and plant X amount of forest somewhere else. But the "offset" doesn't actually work because the release of carbon from the former forest vastly exceeds any possible uptake by the new forest over any plausible timescale (viz, if you look at it over a few centuries it works if the land is like-for-like, but we can't do that because the climate is changing and it wouldn't make sense to try because we don't have centuries to play with).
But we have the problem of exhausted farmland because of years-to-decades of extractive farming, so it's really tempting to say "plant the poor farmland in trees, cut down other trees to get good farmland".
]]>The US has been playing with this, off and on, for years. The Russian Navy probably has but they don't tell me about their mad science projects.
The problem with trying to cut & capture an opponent's towed array is it exposes your presence to the opponent. The ideal is to sneak up behind 'em while staying concealed. Why would you want to give up that tactical advantage?
In the case of the HMS Conqueror's antics it was to take the sonar array home and let the boffins poke at it. That gave the Royal Navy a very good idea about what the Russians could actually hear, making it easier for later subs to get close without anyone else knowing.
Apparently the RN does not deny the story that there were three attempts at this, one successful. That the tool was designed to grind and scrape rather than neatly snip off the cable suggests that plausible deniability was a concern from the beginning[1].
[1] Given that sailors have been losing expensive gear to the sea since dugout canoes were a new thing, they were probably justified.
]]>Now that you mention it, I've always wondered... :)
gasdive @ 1288 In other words, one of many partial solutions, almost all of which need acting upon, to a greater or lesser degree. Won't argue with that.
Brexit D Tusk has suggested a YEAR extension, simply because everyone is running out of time. Obvious sub-plot is that the longer it is delayed, the less likely any brexit & certainly any remotely "hard" brexit becomes. BBC news item here
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