As part of Australia’s effort to meet climate change regulations set by the Paris Agreement, the country is planning to plan 1 billion new trees by 2050. The government feels that trees are the most powerful weapon any country has in its arsenal to fight climate change.
Greenhouse gas emissions have become a big problem around the world and the most common gas is carbon dioxide. Trees are a natural counter to rising carbon emissions because they use carbon dioxide in the photosynthesis process.
How Big of an Impact Will This Have
To determine the impact this will have, one must first look at how much carbon dioxide Australia produces. Currently, Australia is producing 500 million tons of CO2 every year. Planting these many trees will only result in 18 million tons of CO2 being removed from the air.
While this is a significant reduction and should be praised, it fails to tackle the core problem, which is where carbon dioxide emissions are coming from.
What’s Causing Emissions
Lots of different things contribute to carbon emissions. Transportation, agriculture, and industry are some of the biggest factors involved but they pale in comparison to energy generation. Australia has proudly supported coal and is not making an effort to move away from the substance.
Coal is very important to Australia as a whole and is the backbone of electricity generation in the country. It is responsible for over 70% of all energy generation within the country. Not only does Australia rely on coal for energy, but coal is also its most important export.
No matter how many trees are planted, the core issue will still remain.
Australia Will Meet Climate Goals
Australia notes that it will comfortably meet targets set by the Paris Agreement. By 2030, Australia will have reduced carbon emissions by more than 25% compared to 2005. This is a significant achievement considering how much of a reliance the country has on coal, but it could be much more significant if the country were to pursue solar and wind energy generation.
Why The Push for Regulation
The world is beginning to feel the effects of global warming and Australia has been seeing it first hand. The country has been facing extreme heat recently and it is making even the harshest skeptic rethink their stance on climate change. Thanks to global initiatives like the Paris Agreement more nations are becoming proactive at dealing with their emissions.
Climate change is not just a hot topic for governments. Many companies around the world are beginning to make significant strides, as well as everyday citizens who are making more environmentally friendly choices.
According to Quora, a dense forest can have as many as 100 million trees per square kilometer. An average forest has about 1 million per square kilometer. That means 1 billion trees amounts to an area about 20 miles by 20 miles in size of average forest land. Even using timber-industry standards of 3m spacing of plantings, (100,000 trees per km2) that amounts to less than 0.02% of the total earth’s surface and that is only if every tree planted survives.
Meanwhile, the United States plants 6 trees for every one tree cut down for timber, fuel or other uses or about 1.6 billion trees per year — every year. With most of that planting being done by or paid for by the very industries that harvest them such as lumbering.
This is a waste of taxpayer money and amounts to pissing in the wind. Praising them for it is praising false pretense and political smoke a mirror tactics.
You’re right, it’s not enough, but something is better than nothing.