Nature-based climate solutions are going to play a major role in combating climate change, and public and private efforts to plant trees to help scrub the atmosphere of carbon are popular. However, the location of such efforts—not just the fact they exist—might ultimately determine what kind of impact the programs will have on the issue.
During an appearance on O’Neill Speaks, the official podcast of the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Assistant Professor Mallory Barnes said wildfires and other environmental catastrophes in the West have made it clear that forests in the eastern United States have more potential to play a part in battling a warming planet.
“Most of the existing carbon programs are happening in California,” Barnes said. “There are tree planting and reforestation and other types of initiatives going on there that are actually tied to carbon credits and that soft of thing. But when you think about California, there is a lot there that makes it hard to be a tree. It’s dry. It’s hot. There are insect outbreaks.
“So, if you have your tree planting program, and it goes up in flames in a wildfire, like what we’re seeing in Canada right now, causing all of these air quality problems in the eastern United States, all of that carbon was for nothing, because it just burned up and went back into the atmosphere.”
Barnes and her O’Neill School colleague, Professor Kim Novick, recently received a $950,000 grant from NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System program to propel innovative research into nature-based climate solutions focused on enhancing the precision of carbon sequestration estimates and bolstering our strategies to combat climate change. The researchers believe forests in the eastern United States hold the most potential to make a difference.
“Here in the eastern United States, it’s a lot easier to be a tree,” Barnes said “We have a lot of moisture, we’re not really prone to the same types of wildfire events, and all of these insect outbreaks are much less of a concern. And the eastern United States, depending on which estimate you look at, the forests here are already one of the nation’s biggest natural carbon sinks. So, it’s really a ripe opportunity to try and do nature-based climate solutions here. We have a lot of potential here to contribute to these climate mitigation efforts.”
Understanding how much of an impact nature-based climate solutions can have on carbon capture efforts are critical, as is recognizing which efforts actually could make a difference.
“It’s almost like greenwashing,” Barnes said. “If you buy something online, and the company says, ‘We’re going to plant this many trees…,’ where are the trees being planted? The trees will take 20 years to become a forest and actually start taking up carbon. … I find it kind of frustrating that the enthusiasm has gotten ahead of the science. I really don’t want nature-based climate solutions to be used as an excuse to emit more or the same amount of carbon.”
O’Neill Speaks can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast service.
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