Tree Planting May Buy More Time to Fight Climate Change than Though

Mariana Apostolatos

Mr. Ippolito

Current Event 5

October 17, 2019

Milius, Susan. “Tree Planting May Buy More Time to Fight Climate Change than Thought.” Science News, 16 Aug. 2019, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/planting-trees-could-buy-more-time-fight-climate-change-thought.

According to a recent article by Susan Milius, planting trees could buy more time to fight climate change than we think. Planting trees on 0.9 billion hectares of land could trap about two-thirds the amount of carbon released by human activities since the start of the Industrial Revolution, a new study finds. This statistic indicates how much tree-friendly land is available for use. As researchers report in the July 5 Science, without knocking down cities or taking over farms or natural grasslands, reforested pieces could add up to new tree cover totaling just about the area of the United States. This new calculation boosts tree planting to a top priority for gaining some time to fight climate change, says coauthor Tom Crowther, an ecologist at ETH Zurich. The study used satellite images to see how densely trees grow naturally in various ecosystems. The analysis revealed space to nourish enough trees to capture some 205 metric gigatons of carbon in about a century. The benefit of tree planting will shrivel if people wait, the researchers warn. Earth’s climate could change enough by 2050 to shrink the places trees can grow by some 223 million hectares if the world keeps emitting greenhouse gases as it does now, the analysis suggests. Ultimately, in the struggle against climate change, planting trees could potentially buy time for climate change. 

Climate change refers to any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time. Global climate change has already had observable effects on the environment. Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner. Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for decades to come, largely due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities. Climate change is a phenomenon that is more consequential than we think, and if an activity such as planting trees can buy more time to fight climate change, there is no reason to hesitate on the action. 

This article was very well written and informative. It was very easy to read and follow, even providing images of a map of the planet’s potential to support new forests avoids cities, farmlands and natural grasslands to rate the remaining land as likely to support low to high canopy cover. All of the information was introduced in chronological order and the author was very straight-foward and to the point. However, I felt that the article was lacking some information that could have helped deepen a reader’s understanding. The article was very short and I wished the author went more in depth about the negative effects of climate change and why it is a huge issue in today’s world. Overall, the article was easy to understand, engaging, and not too long, keeping the information relevant and to the point.