[General] We would need to plant...(would)

[jpeslab]

Hi,

In the sentece below, what does it exactly mean by "would"? and does it have a different meaning without "would"?

In order to remove that much carbon dioxide from the air, we would need to plant about 30 million trees!

Thanks in advance.

 

[5jj]

Your sentence has a meaning roughly equivalent in meaning to:

If we wanted to remove that much carbon dioxide from the air, we would need to plant about 30 million trees.

Without 'would', it is roughly equivalent to:

If we want to remove that much carbon dioxide form the air, we (will) need to plant about 30 million trees.