In an increasingly warming world, we can’t rely on trees as a climate change cure-all
It’s probably not a great idea to count on forests for a widespread carbon sink, particularly if societies don’t reduce their emissions.
When people talk about ways to slow climate change, they often mention trees, and for good reason. Forests take up a large amount of the planet-warming carbon dioxide that people put into the atmosphere when they burn fossil fuels. But will trees keep up that pace as global temperatures rise? With companies increasingly investing in forests as offsets, saying it cancels out their continuing greenhouse gas emissions, that’s a multibillion-dollar question.