Remember the headlines: Tree planting is our “most effective climate change solution”? Well, it would take 200 years, and we can only plant 10% of the area, says Tom Crowther of ETH-Zürich
Remember the headlines: Tree planting is our “most effective climate change solution”? Well, it would take 200 years, and we can only plant 10% of the area, says Tom Crowther of ETH-Zürich
“The restoration of trees remains among the most effective strategies for climate change mitigation.” That’s the first line from the abstract of a July 2019 paper published in Science magazine.Thanks for reading REDD-Monitor! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work.
"How to erase 100 years of carbon emissions? Stop burning fossil fuels – starting now, National Geographic, 4 July 2020." Well, that would not erase emissions, just prevent further ones. Trees, on the other hand, can erase emissions...
Preventing further emissions is what we have to do to stop the climate crisis from getting worse. One of the problems with planting trees as a "solution" to the climate crisis is that the carbon stored in trees is being used to legitimise continued emissions from burning fossil fuels via the trading of carbon credits. Trees are great (as long as they're not planted in vast monocultures, or planted on species-rich grasslands, or on land that is already being used by local communities). But as Crowther points out in the interview with the Economist, for trees to absorb large amounts of carbon would take 200 years. But we just don't have 200 years to address the climate crisis. And as the climate crisis gets worse (as a result of continued burning of fossil fuels) the chances of trees going up in smoke, or dying during severe droughts, or being attacked by insects only increases.
In 2020, a group of scientists put out a very good statement explaining why “Storage of carbon in plants and soils cannot compensate for emissions of fossil carbon”:
Professor Thomas Crowther was the chief advisor to the UN's Trillion Trees Campaign.
When we stay out of the realm of wishful thinking, we come back to earth and remember that it is the smaller plants that are most ecologically important, and that "grasses hold the planet together." To best benefit the biome, commit to not one more sacrifice zone, anywhere (mines, deforestation and all other human assaults on Nature). Plant and/or encourage native grasses and let natural succession of species build up to whatever climax species will establish there. Just going out and sticking trees into the ground does not a forest make. It's just more typical human manipulation of which we have had too much already.
"How to erase 100 years of carbon emissions? Stop burning fossil fuels – starting now, National Geographic, 4 July 2020." Well, that would not erase emissions, just prevent further ones. Trees, on the other hand, can erase emissions...
Preventing further emissions is what we have to do to stop the climate crisis from getting worse. One of the problems with planting trees as a "solution" to the climate crisis is that the carbon stored in trees is being used to legitimise continued emissions from burning fossil fuels via the trading of carbon credits. Trees are great (as long as they're not planted in vast monocultures, or planted on species-rich grasslands, or on land that is already being used by local communities). But as Crowther points out in the interview with the Economist, for trees to absorb large amounts of carbon would take 200 years. But we just don't have 200 years to address the climate crisis. And as the climate crisis gets worse (as a result of continued burning of fossil fuels) the chances of trees going up in smoke, or dying during severe droughts, or being attacked by insects only increases.
In 2020, a group of scientists put out a very good statement explaining why “Storage of carbon in plants and soils cannot compensate for emissions of fossil carbon”:
https://reddmonitor.substack.com/p/storage-of-carbon-in-plants-and-soils
Professor Thomas Crowther was the chief advisor to the UN's Trillion Trees Campaign.
When we stay out of the realm of wishful thinking, we come back to earth and remember that it is the smaller plants that are most ecologically important, and that "grasses hold the planet together." To best benefit the biome, commit to not one more sacrifice zone, anywhere (mines, deforestation and all other human assaults on Nature). Plant and/or encourage native grasses and let natural succession of species build up to whatever climax species will establish there. Just going out and sticking trees into the ground does not a forest make. It's just more typical human manipulation of which we have had too much already.