AirShares — Sources & Research

The canvas: the earth's lungs, in AirShares units

How big the opportunity is if the unit is a square foot of tropical rainforest. From a partner working session, 30 June 2026.

Claim	Figure	Source
The world's tropical rainforests	~6.2M sq mi ≈ 3.97B acres	Investor working session · to be traced to FAO / Global Forest Watch ✓ Jul 11
As AirShares ($1 = 1 sq ft)	~173 trillion sq ft	3.97B acres × 43,560 ✓ Jul 11
As quarter-acre parcels	~15.9B units	3.968B ÷ 0.25 ✓ Jul 11
Column of air ¼ mile above it all	~1.55M cubic miles	6.2M sq mi × 0.25 mi ✓ Jul 11
Claimable value of the canvas at $1/sq ft	~$173T	vs. ~$79.4B ceiling if sold as ¼-acre units at $5 ✓ Jul 11
The investor's deck concept (12 slides)	archived	Deck preview image · ChatGPT working session ✓ Jul 11
The Amazon, as one-car-per-year offset units	~270M units 5 acres each ≈ 1.35B acres	Investor working session ✓ Jul 11
Amazon revenue ceiling, unit pricing compared	$2.7B/yr vs ~$59T	$10 per 5-acre car-unit annually vs. $1/sq ft claimable (1.35B acres × 43,560) ✓ Jul 11
Share of the canvas that funds protecting ALL of it	<0.7%	3.968B acres × $150 = $595B = $1.19T gross at the 50% split = 27.3M acres of sq ft sold ✓ Jul 11

What an acre of living forest holds, and why protecting it matters more than replanting.

Claim	Figure	Source
Rainforests' share of the world's oxygen	"20%"	Investor deck · commonly cited, contested in the literature (mature forests are near net-zero O₂); verify before external use ⚠ Jul 11
Share of world's species in rainforests	~50%	Investor deck · widely cited (WWF et al.) ✓ Jul 11
Biomass carbon in Himalayan & tropical forest	~95–185 t C/ha (we model ~100)	Central Himalaya carbon research (Springer), Nepal protected-area study (PMC) ✓ Jul 10
CO₂ stored per acre	~150 t CO₂	Derived from above ✓ Jul 10
One Air Share column of air	60 ft tall ¼ acre unit = 653,400 ft³	Investor working session · app updated to match ✓ Jul 11
CO₂ stored per square foot	~3.4 kg CO₂	150 t ÷ 43,560 sq ft ✓ Jul 10

The "what your AirShare offsets" lines, in real driving terms.

Claim	Figure	Source
One passenger car, one year	~4.6 t CO₂	US EPA ✓ Jul 10
Car emissions per mile	~0.4 kg CO₂	US EPA ✓ Jul 10
One acre ≈ 30 car-years	150 ÷ 5	Derived · investor baseline 5 t/vehicle/yr (EPA 4.6 t would give 33; we use his) ✓ Jul 11
365 sq ft ≈ 3,000 miles driven	~3,100 mi	365 × 3.4 kg ÷ 0.4 kg/mi ✓ Jul 10
US passenger vehicles on the road	~270M ≈ 1.35B t CO₂/yr	Investor working session (~5 t/vehicle/yr; EPA baseline 4.6 t) ✓ Jul 11
Rainforest annual absorption (simplified)	~1 t CO₂/acre/yr ≈ 5 acres offsets one car's year	Investor working session · to be verified against sequestration literature ✓ Jul 11
Stock vs. flow, so nobody mixes them	33 car-yrs = stored	Our equivalences (30 car-years/acre, 3,100 miles) describe carbon already STORED in standing forest — what is kept banked by protecting it. Annual absorption is separate: an acre also breathes in ~0.2 car-years more each year. ✓ Jul 11

What it costs to buy and permanently protect an acre.

Claim	Figure	Source
Raw rainforest land, Brazil	~$40/acre	Fund the Planet ✓ Jul 10
Buy + protect one acre via local partners	~$130/acre	World Land Trust, Buy an Acre ✓ Jul 10
Institutional-scale Amazon protection	~$2–2.50/acre	Mongabay, World Bank ✓ Jul 10
AirShares modeled effective cost	~$150/acre	Over-funds vs. raw land to endow permanence ✓ Jul 10

The yearly cost of rangers, camera traps, monitoring, and communities.

Claim	Figure	Source
Median protected-area management spend	~$4/acre/yr (~$10/ha)	Conservation Science & Practice ✓ Jul 10
East Africa government spend	<$3/ha/yr	IUCN ✓ Jul 10
Staff (rangers) share of cost	~73%	Conservation Science & Practice ✓ Jul 10

The public funds we modeled the Preservation Endowment on.

Claim	Figure	Source
Alaska Permanent Fund size	~$86B	Alaska PFD Division ✓ Jul 10
Alaska annual resident dividend (2025)	$1,000	Alaska Beacon ✓ Jul 10
Norway GPFG size	~$1.8T	Norges Bank Investment Management ✓ Jul 10
Norway rule: spend only the real return	~3%/yr	regjeringen.no ✓ Jul 10
AirShares modeled endowment yield	6–8%/yr	University-endowment long-run range; conservative ✓ Jul 10

~1 t CO₂/acre/yr absorption (5 acres per car) — a simplified working assumption; net sequestration varies widely by forest type and age. To be replaced with a cited range before investor use.
Rainforest area (6.2M sq mi) — a working-session figure; we will trace it to FAO / Global Forest Watch before it goes in front of investors.
$16B market size — cited from secondary research; we are tracing it to a primary source (MSCI / Ecosystem Marketplace) before it goes in front of investors.
Nepal & Patagonia land cost — our land-cost sources are rainforest-centric; Himalayan watershed and Patagonian steppe are not yet independently priced.
Endowment yield & the Air Dividend — modeled on a diversified endowment portfolio, not a guaranteed return, and the dividend's legal structure is under review with counsel. We describe it as a share of the endowment's surplus, never as a promised investment return.