How Much Can Forests Fight Climate Change? A Sensor in Space Has Answers.
www.nytimes.com
A new NASA program is helping researchers more accurately calculate how much planet-warming carbon protected areas are storing. It’s a lot.
  • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
    142·
    11 months ago

    This kind of messaging is extremely deceptive and even harmful.

    Fossil fuel production is expanding. Global pollution is increasing. Natural carbon capture puts a minor dent in the problem, but only if we stop using fossil fuels entirely. As long as conservatives and their fossil fuel benefactors are alive, that cannot happen.

    Messaging about how trees will help only serves the fossil fuel execs who will use that message to placate everyone. We need to stop talking about how trees can help and start moving aggressively and forcefully toward removing fossil fuels from the global market.

  • HerrBeter@lemmy.world
    41·
    11 months ago

    But it’s negligible if we just release it back into the atmosphere. Or a forest fire occurs.

    • silence7@slrpnk.netOPM
      3·
      11 months ago

      Fire is a bit complex - some forest plant communities are adapted to frequent low-intensity fire. Keeping those fires happening is necessary for those forests to continue sequestering carbon.

      • Fermion
        3·
        11 months ago

        Charred wood also decomposes at a much slower pace than fallen wood. Partial burns that produce charcoal rather than ash can lock carbon up for a long time.