Forests could suck up 226 gigatons of carbon if restored and protected, study argues

The restoration and protection of forests worldwide could help remove about 226 gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere, according to a study published today in Nature . That’s equivalent to roughly 20 years of emissions from burning fossil fuels and other sources at current rates. Some experts say the analysis provides a more reliable estimate of the carbon-capturing potential of forests than a previous, controversial study that analyzed only the potential benefit from restoring trees to degraded land. But critics are skeptical that the new number is even remotely achievable. The findings provide “clarity and confidence around the substantive role” of forests in fighting the climate crisis, says Wayne Walker, chief scientific officer of the Woodwell Climate Research Center, who was not involved in the research. Although there’s still “much uncertainty” as to the exact amount of additional carbon that forests could take up, Walker says the evidence is strong enough to justify acting to plant, restore, and protect forests. But Joseph Veldman, an ecologist and conservation biologist at Texas A&M University, isn’t convinced by the numbers. “This new study has many serious problems,” he says. For instance, much of the carbon benefit would come from planting trees in grasslands and other areas where they don’t belong, Veldman says, which threatens biodiversity in these ecosystems. Humans have cut down a significant fraction—perh...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research