Are trees the silver bullet for capturing carbon?

(Fred Tanneau/Getty Images)

It has been established that the trees are the silver bullet to capture carbon. And it is certainly the planting of trees is established as a strategy to extract carbon from the atmosphere.

In this way, both Australia and New Zealand intend to grow a billion new trees in the next decade. Pakistan launched its so-called Tsunami of billions of trees in 2014. After restoring 350,000 hectares of the forest ahead of schedule, Prime Minister Imran Khan launched a 10 billion-tree tsunami in 2018 with a goal of five years.

It is necessary to listen to the experts. That being the case, scientists argue that certainly planting trees always reduces carbon in the atmosphere. Of course, if done well, planting trees works as part of the larger effort to reduce carbon. An advantage? It can be done relatively easily and quickly on a large scale.

Likewise, it should be noted that afforestation could remove between 500 and 7,000 megatons of carbon from the atmosphere per year. Some studies put the figures even higher.

Significant considerations

It is necessary to take certain considerations that are significant. And we must be careful in assuming that only trees can save us. A recent article by CBC discredited the idea (popular on Facebook) that Canada’s abundant trees can sequester the carbon we produce. The truth is that our trees can actually emit more carbon than they absorb, as a result of forest fires and natural death.

That being the case, not all tree planting operations are the same. The commercial operations tend to favor the fast growth planted in the formation of grids. The goal is rapid rotation: trees that are ready to harvest in 40 to 60 years.

Now, it is considered that governments are more likely to try to reforest lands that were previously destroyed by fire or that were cleared for crops or cattle grazing. Likewise, the next 100 to 150 years are really crucial in the transition to a low carbon economy, and in this way, forests are an effective tool for a period of time like this to be able to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

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Source: What on Earth? | CBC News