This is Scott Amyx with today’s Climate Change Flash Briefing.
The IPCC report urgently recommends reducing emission of greenhouse gases by transitioning away from fossil fuels toward clean, sustainable energy. For carbon dioxide removal in the atmosphere, the IPCC suggests reforestation and ecosystem restoration. The process of tree photosynthesis absorbs CO2, stores the carbon and emits clean oxygen. A mature tree can absorb as much as 48 lbs of carbon a year and generates enough oxygen for four people to breathe fresh air. A previous report by IPCC indicated that tree-planting could sequester about 1.1 to 1.6 carbon dioxide emissions unit (Gt) of CO2 per year.
In flood zones and coastal cities, trees protect coastal communities by absorbing excess water in the soil and releasing it as water vapor into the air.
According to the UN-REDD program, stopping deforestation and restoring damaged forests could provide up to 30 percent of the climate solution.
But not everyone believes that planting more trees is the right solution.
According to Professor Nadine Unger of Atmospheric Chemistry at Yale, planting trees and avoiding deforestation offer benefits to biodiversity but relying on forestry to slow or reverse global warming is questionable with even the possibility of creating the opposite effect. In Dr. Unger’s highly criticized op-ed in the New York Times a few years back, the researcher argues that trees emit reactive volatile gases that contribute to air pollution and are hazardous to human health. Chemical reactions involving volatile organic compounds produce methane and ozone and form particles that can affect the condensation of clouds. While trees provide carbon storage, they burn oxygen and release carbon dioxide back into the air. Eventually, all the carbon stored in the tree is released into the atmosphere when trees die or burn.
On International Day of Forests and World Planting Day that promotes the importance of education in achieving sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation, I encourage you to research the truth for yourself.
Stay tuned next time.
