Tree Planting Impact on the Climate Change

Global climate change has been a really big topic for the entire world, since global climate change affects everyone. In my opinion, the most affected by this tragedy are forests and their ecosystem, a lot of people believe the same as I do and are trying to save forests, or at least were until new ideas arose. Today, in 2019, after years and years of the global climate change conflict, the discussion keeps on going. However, the perspectives have changed in a big way. There used to be more people who believed that we could and should save the forests ecosystem. In spite of these claims, with new theories and ideas coming out, people have changed their point of view on forests. New claims say that forests aren’t going to save us from global climate change, so there is no point to grow anymore. I see why some people wouldn’t want to grow more trees, because lately there has been many professionals who claim trees can’t save us from global climate change. These scientists and researchers, such as Marra, a forest pathologist at the Experiment Station with a PhD in plant pathology from Cornell University (par.3, Spiegel) base their ideas on the fact that not everyone will want to plant trees, and also that global climate is now too advanced. I refuse to believe these claims because although they shows statistics and numbers, I know that if enough trees are grown we can save our planet, I believe that together we can bring this beautiful planet back to life, I am confident that all of us together can make the difference and prove everyone wrong.

Another thing to look at is the oxygen that trees provide to us. People who claim trees are not important and we shouldn’t grow anymore aren’t looking at this enormous factor. If we stop growing trees, trees will soon be gone. We have to take in count that climate change is causing a crazy amount of forest fires, which are slowly consuming a huge amount of our biggest source of oxygen. If we can’t prevent global climate change by growing trees, we still need them to survive. Which is yet another reason to keep fighting to keep trees and plant new ones. If you don’t believe carbon dioxide emissions can be controlled through trees it is perfectly fine, regardless of what you think, we can’t let all our forests die because we would die with them. Despite the reason you are planting trees, whether it is to save the planet or to save yourself, I believe we can do both, save ourselves and save the planet.

According to an article titled “Scientists are finding that forests aren’t as good at fighting climate change as we thought”, this forest investigator explain that trees don’t really help as much as they thought they did. The information that the author provides through the article, I get where he is coming from. Global climate has evolved so much and created a lot of carbon dioxide that it is technically impossible to control the immense amounts of CO2 by just growing trees. He also mentions that trees can’t be grown from one day to another, which is indeed correct. (par.4, Orwig) Nevertheless, in the same article it is stated that trees do manage to control carbon dioxide emissions. (par. 3, Orwig) This is a reason why I believe that trees are the key to stopping this tragedy from taking over our Earth. It is also mentioned in the Business Insider website that “There's so much CO2 in the atmosphere that planting trees can no longer save us.” (Orwig) They include another claim to address those, including myself, who refuse to believe trees can’t save us “but studies indicate that we simply can't grow enough trees to capture the necessary amount of CO2 that would help us meet the goals set by the Paris Agreement.” (par. 4, Orwig) These claims are indeed correct because they provide us with several examples’ factual statistics.

Additionally, The Guardian claims that “Planting trees to combat climate change is a waste of time, according to a study by ecologists who say that most forests do not have any overall effect on global temperature, while those furthest from the equator could actually be making global warming worse.” (par. 1, Jha) Basically, they say that trees instead of helping can make it worse. Furthermore, in the same article it is said that we are just wasting our time if we think planting trees can control climate change, “To plant forests to mitigate climate change outside of the tropics is a waste of time.' (par. 2, Jha) These people aren’t wrong, we may be wasting our time if the outcome we are looking for doesn’t occur, then again, if we manage to control climate change by growing trees, the people who never gave up on trees will be the ones who saved the earth. Also, in The Guardian, we are given another article which proves my point, “A new study extols the mind-blowing potential of widespread tree planting as a solution to climate breakdown. The forest experts claim that 1bn hectares of treeless land could be forested – an area equivalent to the size of the US – and the study’s authors say restoration of such areas could remove two-thirds (205 gigatons) of all the carbon dioxide emissions pumped into the atmosphere by human activities since the 1800s.” (par. 1, Woroniecki) Here it is proven the massive area in which trees can be grown. If we actually use this area to grow trees, there is no doubt that trees can save our planet.

The stats provided show how it is mathematically impossible to control carbon dioxide emissions with trees. In contrast, from my point of view, these people are not seeing a positive solution. They don’t take in count every single person of the population, just a few percentages. From where I see it, trees can save us. If everyone plants a tree there will be more than enough trees. But wait, I know what many of you may be thinking, not everyone will want to plant trees, well of course not. However, if the majority of us do plant trees, most likely is that we will plant more than one which will recover for those who chose not to plant a tree. This technique may not be perfect, we are not going to know who is planting the trees and who isn’t. The thing here is that at least, unlike others, we are trying. We are giving trees opportunities to fight to save their home. Many others won’t even try, they will just give up based on hypothesis that may be accurate or may not.

In conclusion, during recent years, the hope has decreased severely in comparison to when global climate change was just beginning to rise. Today, we are presenting the changes in temperature, and even the changes of habitats that animals have to do because the living conditions in their home-habitat are almost impossible to survive in. These are enormous changes that are clearly bad for our planet, they are impossible not to notice. Global climate change is growing at a significant rate. We should no longer listen to the constraints that experts are putting in our way, we should act upon what we see and what we believe is good for the earth. We must act now despite what our opinions are, trees aren’t only important to control global climate change, they are also important in order for them to create oxygen for us to stay alive. Despite the reason, everyone needs trees in one way or another which is why we must all fight together and save our planet and ourselves from catastrophe.