{"id":2750,"date":"2022-04-25T09:41:52","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T09:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatetransform.com\/?p=2750"},"modified":"2022-06-16T10:19:44","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T10:19:44","slug":"how-do-forests-affect-global-warming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatetransform.com\/how-do-forests-affect-global-warming\/","title":{"rendered":"How do Forests Affect Global Warming?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Some scientists say that forests can significantly help save the Earth from catastrophic climate change.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Others say that forests are only a small part of the solution.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n This debate raises broader questions. How do forests affect global warming? What impact do they have on the climate?<\/span><\/p>\n Forests are necessary to fight climate change because trees absorb and store<\/a> significant amounts of carbon dioxide and recycle it into oxygen. They do this through the process of photosynthesis.<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The world\u2019s forests absorbed<\/a> around 15.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from the Earth\u2019s atmosphere each year between 2001 and 2019, according to NASA researchers.<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> <\/span>For context, the world emitted over 36 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2019.<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In 2019, scientists showed how<\/a> planting billions of trees across the world would be the biggest and cheapest way of removing carbon dioxide from the air. They said it would significantly affect CO2 levels and slow down climate change.<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Trees don\u2019t just absorb carbon, they also enrich the soil. That, in turn, helps the soil and ground absorb carbon dioxide too.<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Trees are just one part of the many solutions we need to stop global warming. But, they cannot be the only answer. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely not a solution by itself to addressing current climate change. To do that, we need to reduce human emissions of greenhouse gases. But it could still have some partial impact on our ability to reduce climate change\u201d, says NASA senior scientist Sassan Saatchi.<\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Better management of forests, land and other natural ecosystems <\/span>can get us at least a quarter of the way to meeting the 1.5 \u00b0C goal<\/span><\/a>. But to stop runaway climate change, we need to cut global use of fossil fuels.<\/span>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nWhy forests are essential to fight climate change<\/h2>\n
Why trees are not the silver bullet to fight climate change<\/h2>\n