I’ve heard that planting trees, particularly in temperate areas, is not a good way to offset carbon emissions. Is this true?
The loss of forests and other land use changes contribute about one-fifth of the carbon dioxide (CO2) released into Earth’s atmosphere each year. Therefore, forest protection and restoration are a necessary and important part of any comprehensive approach to decreasing atmospheric CO2 levels and reducing the impacts of climate change. Tree planting is an important strategy in restoring forests around the world. We are simply replanting native forests where they naturally occur. As for temperate zone projects, an initial study(2), while preliminary in nature, has found that the impact of reforestation on global temperatures may vary depending upon the latitude or distance from the equator. The authors of this albedo effect(3) study agree that trees are an effective means for sequestering carbon. In the lower latitudes of the tropics, replanting forests offers a significant global cooling benefit. However, at higher latitudes such as in the northern boreal areas, the climate change benef
