Planting trees to save planet `pointless’ say ecologists

Planting trees to combat climate change is a waste of time, according to astudy 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.

Professor Caldeira and his colleague Govindasamy Bala, of the LawrenceLivermore National Laboratory, also in California, said that outside a thin band around the equator, forests trap more heat than they help to get rid of by reducing CO2.
Prof Caldeira said planting trees was a diversion, letting consumers pollute more. He said it would be better to transform the way energy was derived and used, for instance through investment in renewable and carbon-free electricity generation.

The Hindu