Trees provide innumerable benefits to the world, from food to shelter to oxygen, but researchers have now found their dramatic rebound in the eastern US has delivered a further, stunning feat – the curtailing of the soaring temperatures caused by the climate crisis.
by Wagamaga
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Trees provide innumerable benefits to the world, from food to shelter to oxygen, but researchers have now found their dramatic rebound in the eastern US has delivered a further, stunning feat – the curtailing of the soaring temperatures caused by the climate crisis.
While the US, like the rest of the world, has heated up since industrial times due to the burning of fossil fuels, scientists have long been puzzled by a so-called “warming hole” over parts of the US south-east where temperatures have flatlined, or even cooled, despite the unmistakable broader warming trend.
Unfortunately this study is based on a false premise. The agricultural areas were not forested, they were grasslands. So the question becomes, what is the benefit of trees over other natural ecosystems and where is tree planting appropriate? Another recent article showed African savannas being turned into nonnative forests. Carbon credit fraud is or will be rampant. We have to be very careful with tree-planting.