Don’t make fun of trees with your lungs full

Recent “environmental studies” have committed the classic fallacy of reasoning- “not being able to tell the forest from the trees”. ‘Computer Models’ of the earth’s atmosphere have shown that darkening the earth’s surface in the temperate climes could lead to an increase in ‘global warming’. Therefore, they conclude planting trees with their dark leaves would increase the amount of sunlight that is absorbed and given off as heat. According to the models it would be better if the surface of the northern hemisphere was white -like snow covered or sand. The ‘studies’ say that they have taken into account the carbon sequestering and oxygen production of trees and still found that no trees are better. Giving them the benefit of the doubt the researchers may have been trying to make a point that ‘global warming’ studies and modeling can lead to such absurd results because the environment and its myriad of connections is too complex to be understood simply on a quantitative basis. Anyone who walks in a northern forest knows that the benefits to the earth far outweigh any detriment, but quantifying that equation will take a lot of assumptions, which are all in flux. In other words the forest is more than the sum of its parts. And that’s the truth.

The previous issue of the Wisconsin Urban Forestry Insider email newsletter had the following headlines and links:

Leafy, Green and Good Recent news stories suggest that there is one true answer to of global warming — transforming the way we produce energy, reducing carbon dioxide emissions at the source. Planting trees to combat climate change is a distraction from this solution, an "indulgence," "the morning-after pill for fossil fuel gluttons," a "dangerous illusion."

This article itself ends positively, stating the many benefits of urban trees, and describing planting trees as something any of us can do that does not require “the development of new technologies or massive investment in alternative energy sources”. The article states that the climate change issue is complicated, with no easy solution and requiring much time, thought and money, but “Meanwhile, we can all plant a tree.”

Trees to Offset the Carbon Footprint? How effective are new trees in offsetting the carbon footprint? A new study suggests that the location of new trees is an important factor when considering such carbon offset projects. Planting and preserving forests in the tropics is more likely to slow down global warming. But the study concludes that planting new trees in certain parts of the planet may actually warm the earth.

When Being Green Raises the Heat Carbon dioxide is heating up the earth. Ice caps are melting, ocean levels are rising, hurricanes are intensifying, tropical diseases are spreading and the threat of droughts, floods and famines looms large. Can planting a tree help stop all this from happening?

The authors of these articles end with a caution that they are not suggesting cutting down trees outside the tropics is the answer for slowing global warming. "Preservation of ecosystems is a primary goal of preventing global warming, and the destruction of ecosystems to prevent global warming would be a counterproductive and perverse strategy... Forests provide natural habitat to plants and animals, preserve the biodiversity, produce economically valuable timber and firewood, protect watersheds and indirectly prevent ocean acidification.”