It’s inevitable that often its climate change that makes global headlines. For years, experts have been cautioning us about the impending doom of our planet if we do not mend our ways. Among the suggestions to save Earth is the expansion of green cover. But studies point to the fact that simply expanding green cover alone may not really rescue us from the dire situation we find ourselves in. Here’s why. It is an established fact that forests take in large quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. So it would make sense to increase such areas to tackle the growing carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere. But it is important to note that due to global warming, there are increasing instances of wildfires and drought globally, killing off several trees. Such trees, dying in large numbers, are adding to the carbon in the atmosphere.
Further, it is assumed that more carbon dioxide for a tree translates to greater growth due to photosynthesis. However, a study has shown that rather than photosynthesis it’s the cell division that drives the growth of trees. And this process is severely affected by climate change impact such as drought.
Such studies appear to point to the fact that rather than only trying to increase forest areas for carbon offset, it is perhaps more urgent, pertinent, and wiser to protect what exists already. This calls for cutting down on emissions. thus bringing down instances of forests being lost to wildfires, drought, and tree-attacking insects that thrive in a warmer world.
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