Planting trees around the globe have become the premium initiative in curbing the effects of climate change. For instance, in July 2019, Ethiopia planted about 350 million trees in a day while India grew 50 million trees within a day in 2016. What’s more, the United Kingdom is part of the endeavor and has planted millions of trees over ten years. Plus, it has pledged to continue with the same spirit to over a million between 2020 and 2024. Some prominent activists back up the idea of reforestation, including the Swedish Greta Thunberg, and George Monbiot from the UK.
Safeguarding forests is utterly prudent, but we must not rely on the natural phenomena to avert global warming. There is too much carbon dioxide in the air, such that removing it is quite a hassle. For example, one trillion trees can only get rid of a quarter of the gas in the air. On that account, trees will delay climate change, but it will not remedy the situation at all. The root cause of the problem is because society emits carbon dioxide in high doses as the significant greenhouse gases. The outcome is melting ice sheets that, in turn, cause the oceans and seas to rise, causing hurricanes and droughts in other areas.
What is the Solution?
To reverse the impact of climate change, industries and other concerned parties should stop releasing greenhouse gases to the air. The ultimate solution is to get rid of fossil fuels and use renewable energy sources such as solar. In addition to that, deforestation should be a thing of the past as it emits carbon dioxide. When people cut down trees, the CO2 that was trapped in them lets loose to the atmosphere.
Planting trees in the right way will help us ward off global warming since they help in absorbing carbon dioxide. We need to carry out reforestation for starters, which is growing trees where they had been cut. Plus, afforestation is necessary by planting trees in places where there were none before. The ideal areas to plant them are the tropics since they snowball and trap the CO2. Snowy regions will not do any good since more trees will make the area dark and absorb the sun’s heat leading to a warm climate.