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How much can forests fight climate change?

Trees are supposed to slow global warming, but growing evidence suggests they might not always be climate saviours.
  1. Gabriel Popkin

    1. Gabriel Popkin is a freelance journalist in Mount Rainier, Maryland.

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Canopy of trees

Kapur trees (Dryobalanops aromatica) in Malaysia avoid overlapping crowns as they grow, which creates a jigsaw-puzzle pattern when viewed from below. Credit: Stuart Franklin/Magnum

When it comes to fighting global warming, trees have emerged as one of the most popular weapons. With nations making little progress controlling their carbon emissions, many governments and advocates have advanced plans to plant vast numbers of trees to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in an attempt to slow climate change. But emerging research suggests that trees might not always help as much as some hope.

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Nature 565, 280-282 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-00122-z

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