A world with more trees would be a better one

If you love this planet, plant a tree.

It might, at first, seem like a futile gesture that will do little to prevent global climate change from exploding into a full-blown climate catastrophe. One person planting one tree obviously won’t make an appreciable difference.

But a new study published in the journal Science convincingly argues that planting billions and billions of trees could be the biggest — and cheapest — way to stop the Earth from overheating because of humanity’s addiction to burning fossil fuels.

The world’s leaders who like to talk about fighting climate change more than doing what it takes to avert disaster should take note, and action.

Closer to home, Ontario Premier Doug Ford should rethink his government’s short-sighted decision to cut funding for a program aimed at planting 50 million new trees in this province by 2025.

Our cost-obsessed premier should wake up to the growing scientific consensus that planting trees is the most cost-effective weapon in the war on climate change.

The most startling finding in the new study, led by Prof. Tom Crowther at the Swiss university ETH Zurich, isn’t so much that planting trees makes huge sense but that there are 1.7 billion hectares of treeless land in the world on which a staggering 1.2 trillion native saplings could be planted.

This area is roughly the size of the United States and China combined and accounts for 11 per cent of the Earth’s land mass. Much of this open land is in Canada.

It’s also important to know this vast expanse of treeless territory excludes urban areas and crop land. It’s there, waiting for humanity to do something with it — and filling it with trees would not impinge on our living spaces or our ability to feed ourselves.

The efficacy of trees in slowing climate change has long been known, which is why Ontario’s 50 Million Tree Program made so much sense. As trees grow, they absorb and store the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming.

They do it well, too. Prof. Crowther estimates a worldwide tree planting program could remove up to two-thirds of the carbon dioxide emissions human activities are putting into the atmosphere.

And while reforestation on the scale he envisions could cost $300 billion, that expenditure could be shared by scores of nations and spread out over years.

Although some scientists question whether the large scale planting of trees could accomplish so much, it would at the very least help us transition from a civilization that depends on burning fossil fuels. It would be a wonderful and holistic way to not only mitigate climate change but improve the quality of the air we breathe.

Nor would an international tree-planting initiative end the need to take other action against global warming. We would still have to become a world powered by green energy. We would still have to implement carbon taxes or cap-and-trade programs to wean consumers off oil and gasoline. But those steps will take time — something we’re running out of.

Humanity must launch a multi-pronged offensive to beat climate change. Tree planting can be one of those prongs.

Of course, what’s needed now is the will to make this happen on the part of the world’s political leaders.

Our federal government was wise to commit $15 million to keep Ontario’s tree-planting initiative alive. Premier Ford should recommit his government to this program, which should become part of new nationwide strategy.

Think of it as nothing less than the literal greening of our home and native land.