Tree planting – is it always a good thing?
by Lewis, 19 September, 2019, 0 comments
A number of initiatives both national and inter-national have focused on the possibility of large scale tree planting as a means of reducing the effects of climate change and keeping global warming below the critical 2oC threshold. Indeed, some researchers have estimated that restoring and creating forests could reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels by 25%, ‘sucking out’ some (extra) 200 gigatonnes of CO2 and locking it away in wood.
However, there are problems with this approach.
Some estimates suggest that human activities have added a massive 600 gigatonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere over the millennia
Restoring or establishing forests is not a ‘simple matter’ of planting some trees (albeit millions of them); there are technical and financial challenges (see * below, for exmple).
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