Re: Tree planting 'has mind-blowing potential' - sorry, not really. Archived Message
Posted by Ian M on August 2, 2019, 4:39 pm, in reply to "Re: Tree planting 'has mind-blowing potential' - sorry, not really. "
Derek said: 'something else posted too saying we'd better do nothing because if you planted in some areas it would actually further warm the planet.' - I can't access the realclimate article for some reason but I think the argument was that tree planting in northern lattitudes could be counterproductive if it negated the albedo effect, ie: if dark tree cover replaced otherwise snowy ground. You disagree? Glad you agree about the need to avoid enabling biz as usual. That seems to have been the way it's gone so far with the carbon credit farce. One researcher describes what she found: 'I looked at projects going back two decades and spanning the globe and pulled together findings from academic researchers in far-flung forest villages, studies published in obscure journals, foreign government reports and dense technical documents. I enlisted a satellite imagery analysis firm to see how much of the forest remained in a preservation project that started selling credits in 2013. Four years later, only half the project areas were forested. In case after case, I found that carbon credits hadn’t offset the amount of pollution they were supposed to, or they had brought gains that were quickly reversed or that couldn’t be accurately measured to begin with. Ultimately, the polluters got a guilt-free pass to keep emitting CO₂, but the forest preservation that was supposed to balance the ledger either never came or didn’t last.' - https://features.propublica.org/brazil-carbon-offsets/inconvenient-truth-carbon-credits-dont-work-deforestation-redd-acre-cambodia/ Happy to get started with tree planting (have done a fair bit already, though not as many as you!), albeit it seems important that they're planted not just for the sake of it but with an ongoing relationship in mind, whether reinstating sensitive forestry, coppice or (my personal preference) fruit or nut crops. I had the pleasure last year of working in some ancient chestnut orchards in southern france where the peasants used to subsist off the nuts as their main carbohydrate staple. They called it 'l'arbre a pain' (bread tree), see here if interested: https://ondisturbedground.wordpress.com/2018/10/25/bread-not-gold-the-wealth-of-chestnut-trees/ cheers, I
|
|