Q. Can planting a ton of trees solve climate change?
The short answer to this question is no! In fact, I think pretty much everyone agrees that while trees can help, they’re not a complete solution. And while we should plant and protect as many trees and forests as we can, it’s actually a bit more complicated than you’d think. It even has some researchers at odds.
We know that trees take CO2 from the air and release oxygen as they grow. Of course, once the trees are cut down, burned, or even left to rot, this stored carbon is released back into the atmosphere as CO2. But they can also help soil capture carbon and provide important wildlife habitat. So, what is some of the debate about? Let’s take a look!
- Regions in higher latitudes that have few trees can perform a critical function just the way they are – their light-coloured ground and snow reflects energy from the sun back to space. If trees were planted in these areas, their dark leaves would absorb energy from the sun instead of reflecting it. This could eventually lead to higher global temperatures and could offset any cooling provided by the trees.
- Trees can release methane – an important greenhouse gas. While some researchers believe that most of the world’s trees emit methane at least some of the time, it is thought that the greatest methane emissions come from treed areas in tropical wetlands. In most places, it seems that the C02 trees capture and store outweighs their methane emissions.
- Care needs to be taken to ensure monocultures aren’t being planted. Monocultures are often the go-to type of reforestation but there’s evidence that they only hold a small fraction of carbon in comparison to natural forests. In addition, they lack biodiversity and provide limited wildlife habitat in comparison to planting a diversity of tree species. They could replace something that was more valuable initially.
- How successful will the tree planting be? Warmer winters have resulted in populations of destructive insects which can wreak havoc on forests, not to mention impacts of drought, disease and forest fires.
- Even if an area can be forested, should it? As the world population grows, so does the need for agricultural land. Should this land be lost to forest plantations? Should temperate grasslands, one of the most endangered ecosystems on most continents, be used for forest plantations?
While there is much research and debate taking place, the consensus seems clear. While planting trees, in the right places, can certainly help us reduce our climate impacts, they aren’t the silver bullet.
