CORRECTIONS So this video was quite rushed because I wanted to get it out in time for the #teamtrees launch. Here are a couple of things I got wrong: Not ALL coal was made during the carboniferous period. There exists some younger coal here and there that formed under rare conditions that enabled it in spite of the presence of capable fungi. I did film myself saying that but it was lost it my rushed edit. Photosynthesis is more complicated than I described. It involves water for a start. And it seems that the oxygen released during photosynthesis comes from the H₂O not the CO₂. Though I haven't be able to verify that. And here's a non-correction! The thing I was holding up at the start was *not* charcoal. It was a coal dust briquette. You could argue that the briquette was made recently but the coal it's made of is old! So yeah, the thrust of the video still stands but it's been a learning opportunity for me! A final thought on planting trees for carbon capture. A lot of comments saying "what's the point? When the trees die the decomposers will release the CO₂ back into the atmosphere. But really this is more about planting *forests*. In a forest, when a tree dies, another tree grows in its place recapturing the carbon. But also, it's my understanding that it takes a very long time to release the CO₂. Like hundreds of years. So in terms of tackling climate change which is a problem of human time scales, it's a useful endeavour.

So basically we are stuck with plastics for the next 60 million years until some bacteria figure out how to decompose them?

A common misconception that you included is that plants split CO2 into carbon and oxygen, while they actually split water and bind the hydrogen to the CO2 to create sugar and release the left-over oxygen from the water into the air.

Hello, and good day! The theory presented here has been mostly abandoned by experts a few years before you published this video. I greatly appreciate your videos, and recently I watched your 2019 video on the Carboniferous coal production peak. It presents a very compelling and persuasive story, dating as best I can tell all the way back to a 1990 paper, that explains the coal production peak by a lag between the evolution of lignin production in plants and the evolution of lignin degradation in fungi. That hypothesis was bolstered in 2010 by a Science paper which used the molecular clock to estimate the evolution of white-rot Agaricomycetes, the main known lineage with lignin degradation ability, to the early Permian, right at the end of the Carboniferous. However, that hypothesis has been mostly abandoned after a 2016 PNAS paper questioned it on several grounds: - the low lignin content of some of the most important Carboniferous peat-forming plants: lycopsid bark is very abundant in Carboniferous coal, yet it contains no lignin, - periods when lignin was abundantly produced do not correspond to observed peaks in coal production, - coal accumulation peaks seem to reflect local environmental conditions, not the lignin content of the plant material, - Carboniferous fossil wood often does exhibit signs of fungal decay, - while lignin-degrading peroxidases do seem to have appeared in the Early Permian, other less effective lignin-degrading enzymes do exist which seem to have evolved as far back as the Devonian (420-359 Ma), effectively closing the gap between lignin production(∼420 Ma) and lignin degradation evolution, - massive coal deposits have been formed during the Permian, after the evolution of lignin degradation by white-rot Agaricomycetes, - furthermore, if the gap hypothesis was correct, the lack of lignin degradation and subsequent carbon burial should have led to the depletion of atmospheric carbon in a much shorter time than the proposed 120 Ma Carboniferous gap. Rather, the Carboniferous peak is explained by the abundance of equatorial wetlands, which maximize productivity while minimizing decay thanks to waterlogged anoxic ground. Crucially, this accumulation is sustained thanks to the continued subsidence of the ground (ie, the ground sinks) caused by the formation of the Pangea: the collision of continental tectonic plates led to buckling of the crust, creating basins where the ground slowly sink, being filled all the while by sediments charged with organic plant matter, which eventually formed coal.

Coal found in Australia is from the Permian period i.e. after the Carboniferous period, therefore not all coal formed at the same time.

I play Minecraft, and I can confirm this is true

Millions years later: "Why almost all fossil plasic was made at the same time"

As a kid I always wondered why fossil fuels are limited and never got a sufficient answer.. it seems over time I just accepted it and forgot I was wondering about it. Thanks for reminding me that I was once curious. glad u corrected yourself about photosynthesis :)

1:50 Lignin: Essence of Wood, A Mould Fragrance

I love geological time "It all happened at the same time" = it happened over a time period more than 60 times the period humans have existed

Most coal was made at the same time...like a single global event covered the Earth in a layer of silt that stopped the wood from decomposing.

Well said! You are a wonderful teacher and, after all, who is more important than a teacher . . . well, maybe a mother. I have a related question: Does graphite come from coal deposits or from oil deposits, prior to being super heated by magma? Thanks for posting this video.

That's actually one of the most interesting thing i've learned this month.

So for millions of years the ground just had stacks of dead trees that couldn't break down? Just miles of soggy wood that goes down a long way?

Im 70 yrs, old , I love science and always learning, This video about coal is the best thing I have heard about in many years !!!WOW !!

I doubt many people know that about coal. At least i didn't. Always love science or natural phenomena explained in such simple and engaging manner. Keep spreading the knowledge and more importantly the curiosity and enthusiasm Steve.

always wondered why there are no "new" coal deposits.

The world must have looked so alien covered with dead yet not decomposing trees.

you're telling me the packaging for the briquets for my grill that say it was made in october of last year is inaccurate?

Dude - that looks like a charcoal briquet, not a lump of coal...

Coal is solar energy stored as a solid fuel.

"All coal was formed at the same time." Holds up a charcoal briquette.

I remember looking at a big tree and trying to work out why it doesn't sink into a sink hole where the mass was derived from the earth, and the same thing finally hitting me after a few days: it's mostly made of air. But my correction I eventually realized is that, by mass, it's probably mostly made of "ground" after all - that by-definition wet stuff that flows *through* the ground, thus not leaving a void when sucked up.

Giant tree's that were felled, caught alight, burnt to a state of coal then flooded/extinguished. Flood covers the coal with water silt and clay preserving it then coal gets dug up many years later. Giant felled burning trees that lie down on the ground which are then buried then become giant coal seams. Charcoal is made by way of digging a big pit in the ground, filling it with wood, setting fire to that wood filled pit then covering that burning wood pit with sand/soil before the wood turns to ash.

It's very rare that I learn something radically new on UKposts, but this clip did it. When I went to school (admittedly way back), we still learnt that coal was made when the conditions were just right, meaning that large swaths of plant matter became trapped underground (in swamps and whatnot). That was, at the time, the only circumstance where it could be explained that decomposition couldn't happen. But once you think about it, the other condition where decomposition can't happen is just what this video explains. This made my day, because another element of the world has now become much better explained. I always had a nagging feeling that there seems to be far too much fossil fuel in the ground for the original explanation to make (complete) sense. Now it finally does -- thank you :D !!!

got 20 notifications about trees. That's a great collaboration.

Oh my god, I have known about photosynthesis for years, and have enjoyed fires all my life, but I have never fully released the whole process. I had intense waves of realization when you connected the dots between separating Carbon and O2, storing the solar energy as carbon, and then reintroducing the 02 and the carbon to release the solar energy as fire and recombing the molecules into CO2. I knew those things independently, but never connected the whole process together. Thank you for this video!

Seen your correction about planting trees, yes trees or forests are a storage not really converters, it means that as soons as the forest has a stable size it's not taking anything anymore (in fact it still is but it will take a very small part that will end up forerver trapped in the soil). Yes we can think that it takes a lot of time to have a new forest of stable size but it still is a storage and not a converter, it's adressing a flux issue with a stock solution if you see what I mean. That beeing said it could be possible to find better solution than forests using plants that would more work like converters than storage, or even possible to engineer some.

"Mould" - seems an appropriate name for someone studying decomposing........

I think that coal was made about two months ago at the Kingsford plant!

I'm so glad I saw this, and that it explains one thing that I've been curious about for years. So what I'm getting from this is that no Dinosaurs (or their fossilized remains) were hurt in the making of modern-day coal or oil deposits.😜

Love your explanation. It's exciting and have a lot new information for me.

I wonder how forests look like with all this dead trees stack on each other, how tall this stacks was, and how new trees can grow when everything was obstructed by dead trunks.

I've planted over a hundred trees on my 3 acre property, over the years. Doing my part...

Well, you answered that question quite well, thank you. I learned something today! 😊

I have a 100 and something year old friend whose father was a superior for the National Coal Board in Sheffield. Her father was able to taste coal and tell which seem it was, it was a part of his training. A interesting combination of your recent videos.

One of the best natural science videos I have seen (and I wach science videos every day). I had no idea about the history of stone-coal! So cool!

Another fun fact that I'm paraphrasing from one of my other favorite youtube channels, PBS Eons: The Environmental pressure that originally caused the ancestors of trees to grow so tall was all that undecomposed matter lying around. It got so deep over time it blocked out access to the sun for plants trying grow on the ground! So over time, trees got taller and taller in an effort to retain access to sunlight!

A perfect example of what advocates are supposed to be like. Regardless of your stance on climate change, he's asking for voluntary donations to a cause instead of getting government to force people at gun point. Much respect.

You should consider it was all formed within a short period of time during a catastrophic world wide flood.

In fact, coal has been formed over a great range of time. The oldest coal dates from the Precambrian and was formed from deposits of organic material 3 billion years ago. It was formed from an offshore layer of algae at the mouth of an ancient river delta. Over time, dead algae built up on the sea bottom and was then buried under flood deposits of silt. The youngest coal dates from the Eocene, fifty million years ago and is characterized as soft coal deposited in the subtropical forests of ancient Germany.

Actually plants break water into hydrogen and oxygen and then combine the hydrogen to CO2 to make carbohydrates.

Really fascinating. And sooo clear and succinct. Very well done

Planted 15 trees this fall. Costed a darn site more than a dollar a piece.

What's in your hand is a piece of barbecue coal and it was made in march 2019 ;-)

It looks like he's holding a charcoal briquette that was made sometime this year.

Coal: Took 60 million years to produce; took 500 years to use up.

as a todler my grandfather threw me in the coalshed on the balcony when lying there i saw a diamond in one of the coals so beautifull colors, long time i thought i imagined it untill i learned in school that they are made of the same substance so it made sence. ;)

There's an app called 'ecosia.' They plant trees for every thing you search on the app. It's like Google but also plants trees.

I really want "Essence of Wood" on a shirt.

Imagine a family of coal chilling for the past 30303 Years then a man just mines it all with a stone pickaxe

“Trees are (mostly) made of air” was something I didn’t realize until well into adulthood, and it blew my mind! 😊

Oh my God this has been the most recurring question of the entirety of my childhood , year and year again these teachers told me the the coal started forming millions of years ago and I can't figure out why oh why does that make it limited

When 60 million years can be considered the same time.

Most educative video on this channel I have stumbled upon so far

As a kid I grew up in Catholic schools where we had the Boy Scouts. Starting as a Cub Scout later to Boy scout. Every year when it was warm enough we would march around planting trees everywhere. I believe I've already planted 2 million trees! Very cool Coal FYI.

Considering the very specific circumstances for coal to form, I'll go out on a limb and say it is probably rarer than gold in our universe.

Just a casual 60 million year time window. And I thought the 4 hour window for the cable company was ridiculous.

I've drilled many oil and gas wells and every one we drilled goes thru a thin layer of coal, we could see it going over the shale shakers, other words, its wrapped around the entire planet at various depths

When I worked as a gas delivery driver I was amazed to find out the company I worked for made a number of gases, literally, by extracting them from the atmosphere. Then later saddened to find out the most popular gases used required much, much less greener approaches to production.

Trees consume a relatively small amount of co2. Its the oceans that absorb most co2. Sea life consumes co2 and when it dies it sinks to the bottom of the ocean

Steve you honestly make some of the best stuff on this site imho. Always engaging and always teaches something new

I always enjoy your content.

My physician told me that you do not get fungal infection by the fungus living in rotten wood, because that kind of fungi do not thrive in the human body. In this video, we understood it is because they are adapted to break down lignin. You can still get healh issues by a rotten wood house, but not direct infection by the wood fungi. (But think it is different with e.g. the black molds you get in a bad concrete houae. Those are more generic...)

I used to think that process of coal making is an ongoing process. This video has washed off that ignorance. Thank you 🙏

Glad to hear someone from this perspective who understands carbon and lignans and bacteria and fungi. Thanks for the excellent video!

"All this videos are coming out at the same time" Just like coal!!

Fascinating! Thank you!

I`m so proud I`ve planted trees since age of 7 and at age 69 still doing it like taking trees and seeds to the shores of artificial lakes here in patagonia and I do it for free, I encourage everyone to do it to save the planet for our offspring

You beat smartereveryday and veritaseum by like a minute.

It seems to me that what he's holding is not the mined coal, but a piece of compressed charcoal, which is probably a few years old at most... not 300000000 yo.

I loved this fact. Im a blacksmith and use coal often. Nice

All the involved UKpostsrs are announcing the tree scheme “at the same time”, i.e. within 60 million years of each other...! 😂

There is a rock formation in my province in an area called drumheller, the rock is about 66-67 million years old and has a quite a bit of coal in it, enough that it used to be mined. It’s very cool that most of the worlds coal was formed at the same time, but definitely not all of it. Great video and I’m glad your on this project!

What an amazing story with the lignine and the comparison to plastics. Wow!

This is an amazingly informative video. Never knew these facts even though it was explained in a way that made it obvious to me. Excellent. Really.

Another "fun fact" - all of those trees dying (and not decomposing) during the Carboniferous era also produced the highest level of atmospheric oxygen - about 35 percent. (Now it's about 20 percent). This is also how insects grew to such gigantic sizes at that time. And, regarding a comment someone made about how planting trees NOW won't eliminate all of that carbon now being released by our coal burning - um....the other part of the "solution", in addition to planting trees,... is to STOP BURNING COAL.

I would like to donate. But not via credit card, sorry. *Edit:* They have PayPal and other options at teamtrees.org

Wow. This has blown my mind. Thank you!!!

Honestly it speaks volumes of the nutrient cycle at the time that organisms were so well fed they never had to compete for wood as a food source. Speaks less of the 'inability' of the organisms to discover it and more to how plentiful this period was that nothing was interested in wood. Except maybe Jean-Baptiste Grenouille.

Well, I've always had the understanding the peat bogs were simply "young" coal fields.

Pretty trippy to think that all the carbon from the gas and coal we burn, used to be in the planet's atmosphere...

would it even be possible today, that if we calculated the amout of used energy could be growing in trees in the same time we use it?

I Couldn't help smile a bit at the nominative determinism there. Steve Mould talking about fungus.

ONE TREE, for the mother's pride ONE TREE, for the times we've cried ONE TREE, gotta stay alive I will survive ONE TREE, for the city streets ONE TREE, for the hip-hop beats ONE TREE, oh I do believe ONE TREE is all we need!!

"Lets reduce the carbon..." however the carbon locked up in coal and oil was once all in our atmosphere.... and this was during the "greenest" phases of our planet...

Very interesting indeed! You mentioned plastics, we could wait for microorganisms to figure out a way to decompose them, I have read that some such activity have been observed? Or we could help the organisms along and make it easier for them to do the job. 👍

Thanks Mate 👍 absolutely bloody brilliant video and explanation 👌

Actually Steve, you are the first video I have heard mention this.

Lignin: Is invented Fungi: It's free real estate

This is one of my favorite stories. Thx

In Brazil we do use Ethanol from sugar cane as one of the main fuel sources for cars and agriculture airplanes. It is a literal way to use the solar energy and carbon from the air to fuel the economy. The ethanol production plans also generate energy for their own consumption and to feed nearby cities. The tractors used on this production runs on bio diesel and the airplanes that are used on cane production uses ethanol directly. There is no need for nitrogen fertilizer too as we developed a simbiothic bacteria that lives at the roots of the sugar cane and produces the required nitrogen for the plants.

When is a 60-million-year time span equivalent to simultaneity? Oh right --- speaking geologically.

5:09 , That's the subtlest announcement i have seen among all the #teamtrees videos, LoL

Thank you for not using little video clips to match a word in your script. A lot of my brain is used to evaluate or decipher the reason I am shown a pretty lady experiencing an epiphany.

Interesting. What about different coals, though? Lignite, bituminous, anthracite? For example, anthracite is rare, coal-wise; only found in a few areas, that I know of: southern Wales, parts of China, and northeastern Pennsylvania (where I'm from). The geology of each area is different, and bituminous deposits (I'm referring to western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, etc) are found in strata below, above and the same as, say, the anthracite deposits are (Pottsville, Llewellyn conglomerates, etc).

this is the most interesting bit of knowledge i've learned this year, thank you!

4:53 wont help unless after they're grown we cut them and bury them so they can become coal algae would be much better for this since they grow much faster you would still need to stop aerobic respiration and methanogenesis for them to become a carbon sink

However, a 2016 study largely refuted this idea, finding extensive evidence of lignin degradation during the Carboniferous, and that shifts in lignin abundance had no impact on coal formation. They suggested that climatic and tectonic factors were a more plausible explanation.[27]

4:45 But by the very points of this video we can't take carbon out of the air by planting trees because 300 million years ago fungi started using dead trees to live and reproduce and cut the flow of carbon into the lithosphere. Not unless we could ... genetically engineer trees that produce in themselves a powerful and lasting general fungicide... A worthy goal for CRISPR research if ever I've thought of one!