In the world of environmentalism, there is no conversation more prevalent than that of how to solve climate change. It's not really a big surprise, of course, but this conversation often dives into some 'quick fix' territory, unfortunately missing the big picture. One such proposed fix is the mass planting of trees.
Please understand, I think that the planting of trees can be a great help in combating climate change (I've got Ecosia downloaded on pretty much every device I own), yet it's often presented as a complete solution, and wrongfully so. In 2019, the NASA climate change website published an article about a study regarding the number of trees needed to help reverse climate change (1).
The number? A little more than 500 billion trees. In area, this comes to be about one 16th of the land on earth. While the space itself wouldn't be that much of an issue, this would only get rid of 20 years' worth of human-produced carbon with the rate now. This alone wouldn't be able to end climate change, especially when we consider how long it takes trees to grow. The amount of carbon it would trap is the amount over their lifetime, which is decades. Humanity could put far more carbon into the atmosphere than would be trapped during this time period. The NASA article points out the fact that this can only be a mitigation tool, not a solution.
Reforestation is a vital component of the fight against climate change, but we can't go so far as to suggest it will solve it. What I believe it part of the problem is that we see trees as the main producers of oxygen, when they aren't even close. Carbon dioxide trapping and oxygen production is mostly done by the oceans, with between 50-80% of all oxygen being released from our watery friends (2). We need to focus on ocean healing more than reforestation, without reducing the amount of focus that's being put towards trees.
Of course, there's an even bigger issue to tackle; overconsumption of resources. No matter how many trees that we plant, or how much we clean the oceans, climate change cannot be avoided without a change in the way that we live our everyday lives. America especially exists in a bubble where we think that because we can't see the amount of trash that we create on the daily, it must not be that bad. Planting a tree which will trap carbon over the next 30 years won't help if I'm also running my heat and AC 24/7.
If our culture doesn't change, neither will our planet. In the meantime, focus on changing your own life, and if possible, sure, help clear the oceans and plant new trees. None of those things are bad, it's just that we shouldn't be so hasty as to suggest they are complete solutions. I used to believe trees were the answer also, so I'm completely preaching to the choir on this one.
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