Grow more trees !
Reforestation removes
CO2 from the atmosphere.
Reforestation cools
the Earth’s land surfaces.
Cooling the surface
via reforestation
Forest losses can warm
local temperatures
by as much as 1°C
within 10 years
(Alkama and Cescatti, 2016).
Huang et al., 2020
found that when a region
returns to forest and
tree cover, cooling ensues.
And with a
growing percentage
of European forested
areas returning, a
“predominant regional
biophysical cooling”
with
“an average temperature
change of −0.12 ± 0.20 °C,
with widespread cooling
(up to −1.0 °C) in western
and central Europe
in summer and spring”
has swept across Europe
due to land cover changes
in recent decades.
Novick et al., 2020
suggests reforestation
can mitigate “deleterious
effects of climate warming”
as it dramatically cools
surface temperatures.
Cooling from reforestation
can reach magnitudes of 2-3°C
for the air above the surface
and 4-6°C for surface climate.
Forest expansion
substantially expands
the Earth carbon sink
and removes CO2
from the atmosphere
such that future forest
expansion, or greening,
could offset 17 years
of equivalent human
CO2 emissions by 2100.
This suggests CO2
emissions mitigation
could far more easily
and inexpensively
be achieved
by focusing
on reforestation
rather than fossil fuel
reduction policies.