TREES, TRUMP, AND CLIMATE CHANGE

We told ourselves as we planned this blog post we should write about something other than President Trump. We kicked around several ideas, eventually settling on climate change, a pressing issue to which we haven’t paid enough attention. This piece concerns climate change but, even writing about that, we still find ourselves writing about Trump.  In

discussing climate change, we can't ignore his short-sighted policies, including pulling the United States out of the Paris climate accords. Because of the climate-related disasters that have unfolded in recent days, the urgency of electing a president who will attack the problem, not ignore or make it worse, just increased.

First, there’s the incredible destruction wrought by Hurricane Dorian, which dealt the Bahamas a devastating blow and struck some

Devastation of Hurricane Dorian August 2019

coastal areas in the United States. The Bahamas will recover only after years and massive aid from the world community. We know the American people will help,    through generous private contributions and individual actions. What the U.S. government will do under Trump remains uncertain. He balked at doing more than the minimum for Puerto Rico after two hurricanes slammed that island back-to-back, and the people most affected there are U.S. citizens. Scientists say the damage from ever-more-powerful hurricanes like Dorian will only get worse in years to come.

Second, fires continue raging in the Amazon jungle in Brazil. That country’s new Trumpian - president, Jair Bolsonaro,  emphasizes    de-

velopment and seems indifferent about the fires. World leaders chastised Brazil about the destruction, but Bolsonaro rejected aid    from

the G-7 nations for helping fight the fires unless French President Emmanuel Macron apologized for what Bolsonaro considered as

insults to Brazil. Bolsonaro objected to Macron’s insistence the fires are all the world’s concern, not just Brazil’s and suggested Macron infringed Brazil’s sovereignty. Some scientists say losing the trees in the Amazon rain forest, and the underbrush that goes along with them, could have catastrophic consequences for large parts of the planet.

              

The Tree Solution

Among all this bad environmental news comes a potentially hopeful idea. If you want to do  something about climate change, plant

a tree! A study conducted by a group of scientists based in Switzerland and released in July suggested planting one trillion trees could cut atmospheric carbon dioxide levels by 25%. Release of the study unleashed optimism the world might have found a climate change solution almost everyone can get behind, reducing the conflict between supporters of fossil fuels and those who want wider use of clean energy like wind and solar.

Critics of the Swiss study dashed that hope quickly, saying (1) reforestation alone won’t solve the climate crisis and (2) since adult, full grown trees diminish carbon emissions the most, such a planting program wouldn’t have the desired effect soon enough. These critics reminded us we’re running out of time. They added that private property rights and other land use issues could reduce the effectiveness of reforestation programs.

How Trees Help

Even those who recognized the one trillion tree solution isn’t a magic bullet for the climate change problem acknowledge trees make a difference:

          

*Trees absorb large amounts of carbon, about 48 pounds a year for mature trees. Such trees release enough oxygen for four people.

*Trees protect coastal areas from flooding and storms by slowing storm surge and absorbing excess water.

*Trees anchor other plants and provide wildlife habitat.

*Trees – surprise, surprise – provide shade, keeping the earth cooler.

Some countries have moved forward with anti-climate change programs based on tree planting. Ireland, for example, recently announced it will plant 440 million trees

between now and 2040, about 22 million a year. That nation will also impose a carbon tax, increase its investment in renewable energy, and enact land use and agriculture rules that should reduce carbon emissions. Elsewhere, Ethiopia planted 350 million trees in one day as part of a reforestation program and India planted 50 million trees in one day in 2016.

Ethiopia Tree Count Map

                                                                                             Photo courtesy of Mother Nature Network

Needed: Comprehensive Approaches

Planting massive numbers of trees apparently won’t, by itself, solve the climate crisis.  That’s

probably a good thing, since knowing that discourages the idea a simple solution exists for this complex problem. Indeed, some Republicans who once denied we have a man-made climate change problem, now grudgingly acknowledge the situation, but assert a technological solution will appear in time. That, if true, would avoid hard choices   about

energy and spare the fossil fuel industry and its GOP-friendly executives (and donors) the reckoning that may come if climate change weans the United States off oil, gas, and coal. The fact no magic bullet solution apparently exists just means we should attack the problem comprehensively with a combination of government regulation and incentives, along with market-based solutions that reflect consumer demand and entrepreneurial innovation.

We don’t view low-tech solutions like tree planting campaigns as mutually exclusive with the development of solar energy, wind power, and electric cars that reduce carbon emissions. A lot of things - reliance on internal combustion engines for transportation, coal-fired electric generation, and deforestation driven by overbuilding and urban sprawl - created this problem. Fixing it will require more than one solution.

Individuals, acting alone, can’t solve this crisis. Every American over 18 can, however, do two things. First, plant a tree. Second, vote in 2020 for a president who will get the United States moving on climate change.