I found this particular study from the University of Michigan interesting at least in part because it confirms things I’ve been saying for some time:
Some climate activists advocate large-scale tree-planting campaigns in forests around the world to suck up heat-trapping carbon dioxide and help rein in climate change.
But in a Perspectives article scheduled for publication May 21 in the journal Science, a University of Michigan climate scientist and his University of Arizona colleague say the idea of planting trees as a substitute for the direct reduction of greenhouse gas emissions could be a pipe dream.
“We can’t plant our way out of the climate crisis,†said Arizona’s David Breshears, a top expert on tree mortality and forest die-off in the West. His co-author is Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability and an expert on paleoclimate and climate-vegetation interactions.
Instead of wasting money by planting lots of trees in a way that is destined to fail, it makes more sense to focus on keeping existing forests healthy so they can continue to act as carbon “sinks,†removing carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and storing it in trees and soils, according to the researchers. At the same time, emissions must be reduced as much as possible, as quickly as possible.
In case you’re wondering where those forests are, the world’s largest expanses of forest are in the following countries:
- Russia
- Brazil
- Canada
- U. S.
- China
- Australia
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Indonesia
- Peru
- India
Forest cover in Russia, Canada, and the U. S. has been pretty constant over the last several decades; China’s and India’s forest cover has increased slightly. The forest cover in Brazil, Congo, Indonesia, and Peru has decreased at a ferocious rate over the last several decades. In other words if you actually want to preserve forest cover, it should be in precisely the countries that are exempt from the provisions of the Paris Accords and the clearest way to preserve forest cover is through economic development.
