Plant Trillion Trees To Reverse Global Warming

Post-industrialisation, there has been a substantial increase in air pollution which invited an exponential growth in health problems and is the underlying cause of millions of deaths every year. Aiming to plant trillion trees although seem unachievable but economically challenged countries like Pakistan has already shown the pathway by planting a billion trees under their ‘Billion Tree Tsunami’ campaign.

New research published in Science highlighted that planting around one trillion trees could remove two-thirds of the human-produced carbon in the atmosphere. Researchers estimate that achieving this humongous task will require over one billion hectares of land and will aid in removing 205 gigatons of atmospheric carbon.  

The report was brought out by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests that a trillion trees can limit global warming to 1.5° by 2050. The report is crucial as post-industrialisation, the earth is already seeing temperatures rise every year and if this pattern continues than planting a billion-hectare forest is the only way out.   

The researchers not only found the aspirational solution for tackling the atmospheric carbon but also provided a practical solution by identifying the areas where this gigantic number of trees can actually be planted across the planet.   

Along with Crowther Lab of ETH Zurich University, researchers analysed around 80,000 satellite photographs and based on these pictures, researchers identified areas where the trillion-plant target can be achieved. They further assessed and studied soil and weather pattern which helped them to assess the potential of various locations across the globe for the growth of newer forests.   

According to the research, amongst the countries, currently, Russia can lead the way as it has the most space with 583,000 square miles followed by the USA, Canada, Australia, Brazil and China.  

Image Source: Science 

The above image highlights the areas which hold the potential of giving rise to new forests.  

Also, countries have layout plans for planting trees in their countries. China is planning to grow forests equivalent in size to Ireland. England has plans to revive its northern forests by planting more than 50 million trees. Further, African countries have pledged to restore more than 100 million hectares of their forests.