Tree planting not a carbon cure-all
Attempts to mitigate global climate change by planting trees may be doing more harm than good, according to a recent study.
Ecologists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Carnegie Institution and Université Montpellier II found that while trees absorb carbon dioxide and release moisture into the atmosphere that aids cloud formation – both of which help to keep the planet cool – the heat they absorb can cancel out any benefi ts. The eff ect is particularly strong at higher latitudes, where planting trees in areas of tundra would stop heat being refl ected by the snow and result in a net increase in temperature due to heat being absorbed by the forest’s dark canopy. Indeed, outside a thin band around the equator, forests trap as much or more heat than they help mitigate by reducing CO2.
“North of 20 degrees [latitude], forests had a direct warming infl uence that more or less counterbalanced the cooling eff ect of carbon removal from the atmosphere,” said the study’s lead author, Govindasamy Bala of the LLNL.
February 2007
Ecologists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Carnegie Institution and Université Montpellier II found that while trees absorb carbon dioxide and release moisture into the atmosphere that aids cloud formation – both of which help to keep the planet cool – the heat they absorb can cancel out any benefi ts. The eff ect is particularly strong at higher latitudes, where planting trees in areas of tundra would stop heat being refl ected by the snow and result in a net increase in temperature due to heat being absorbed by the forest’s dark canopy. Indeed, outside a thin band around the equator, forests trap as much or more heat than they help mitigate by reducing CO2.
“North of 20 degrees [latitude], forests had a direct warming infl uence that more or less counterbalanced the cooling eff ect of carbon removal from the atmosphere,” said the study’s lead author, Govindasamy Bala of the LLNL.
February 2007
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