A scientist has recently discovered that deforestation doesn’t necessarily cause a direct impact on global warming. Previously we’ve been told that more trees will help reduce the global warming impact. That if we just grow more trees and stop logging the forests so much that we’ll see an improvement in how our planet warms or cools.
This is just not so, says one scientist from Clark University’s Graduate School of Geography. It’s been long proven true that trees do soak up carbon dioxide from the air and store or release it into our soil and the wood of the trees. This process does slow the accumulation of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere but that’s not the only impact trees have on our world.
Trees do a lot more, and that’s why this scientist has seen that deforestation isn’t necessarily the only or correct answer to global warming solutions. Larger forests tend to hold more heat, which is a process called the albedo effect. This means your large forest out in the region you live in is holding more heat thus creating more global warming if you think about it logically.
After studies have been completed in various areas where heavy, dark, warm forests are located it’s been shown that the larger forests actually create a warmer planet even if they’re soaking up the carbon dioxide in the air and storing it to reduce some greenhouse gasses. The research that’s gone into this theory was funded by NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System.
It’s been proven that in some regions forest loss helps global warming while in other places it warms the planet. This can be rather confusing when you’re a scientist trying to come up with the right solution to help control our global warming situation. This is something scientists have known for a while, that adding more trees or taking down more trees weren’t having the impact that we’d hope with global warming. It’s just not a heavily appreciated topic of truth for people.
You need to consider both the carbon and albedo effects of the forest trees in order to come to a solution that makes sense. Both of these processes that trees help create needs to be considered when you’re thinking about stopping the logging industry or planting a substantially large number of trees. Larger forests in an area that isn’t typically full of trees, may cause the albedo effect to warm that region when it was otherwise cooler.
While this is all in theory right now and slowly being open for discussion, it’s a topic that top scientists have been discussing for some time. They’ll continue to do the research and evaluate what we can do about our forests to help slow global warming, but for now, it’s important to know that trees do more than just soak up the carbon dioxide from our air, they can cause more planet warming and people aren’t talking about.