My answer to Is it possible to stop global warming by planting trees?
Answer by Desmond Last:
Visualize a football pitch in your mind, then multiply that 4500 times. Big? Well that is how much in area we are losing of the Amazon everyday. Even if that figure was wrong by 50% (the information is from the Guardian) it still is a lot to replace.
We cannot hope to replace fully-grown indigenous species by planting trees in some field in geographical climate location not connected directly by pressure, wind or temperature paths to those removed. When we lose a tree in the Amazon we lose part of the lungs and thermostat of the world as well as losing the 350 plus species of plant, insect and creature's gr8 and small that use that tree as a home. Planting conifers to replace the tall broad-leaf wide areas trees of the Amazon is a waste of time and money. It might look good on x multi-national's website but it does nothing for our Planet.
We have never really dealt with deforestation and it is almost to late to deal with it now. Consider the United Kingdom. Imagine what it looked like 300 years ago. Massive forests, small hamlets and a contribution to the world thermostat and supplier of clean air. Here we are only 300 years later and we have lost thousands of acres of woodland and what has been replaced is not fully-grown is not concentrated in large areas and in many cases are pine/confer trees. The point I am making is that tree loss is not just confined to the Amazon – it affects every country of the World. Australia has totally failed to use its Continent to grow more food and trees from reclaimed dry bush-land/desert and its poorly irrigated land between its coastal strip and the Deseret areas. It would have enabled the World to combat tree loss, multiplied their economy and develop desalination plants as an Industry for them. Instead they cling to long narrow coastal strips slowly being destroyed by intense yield cultivation and salination. Just as we have engineered Climate Change we could have had engineered a better climate for the whole world. My new modelling systems would have allowed us to model the Planet in such a way we could have used the outcome of the model to alter specific parameters with positive results – instead we have Paris 21 – which is almost like throwing a dice to see what needs to be done, and with the consequent corruption of money we all know will happen.
So, Yes. Planting the right trees in the right place is good. But, not removing them in the first place is better. I continue to make the point ,8 years of writing about climate change with ideas that would work, and are not used by any Government at the moment, and not one member of Government has ever asked my advice, not one media has ever printed or reported me..Which is why I will be contesting the Paris 21 Agreement in Court. http://www.desmondlast.com
Is it possible to stop global warming by planting trees?
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