Trees: The answer to global warming?

Last week atmospheric scientist Ken Caldiera, of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University, reported at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco that the cooling and warming effects of forests largely balance out in the middle latitudes where the lower 48 states and most developed nations are located.

“The effects pretty much cancel each other out,” said Govindasamy Bala, a LivermoreLab scientist who led the latest study. “If you put it bluntly, there’s really no planet benefit.”

“Our study shows that preserving and restoring forests is likely to be climatically ineffective as an approach to slow global warming,” he said. “To prevent climate change, we need to transform our energy system. We must focus on effective strategies and not just ‘feel-good’ strategies.”

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