Climate change could be paused by planting trees, researchers say, as they map out available land

Planting trees to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere seems like a no-brainer in the fight against climate change.

Australia is one of six countries that together hold
around 50 per cent of the world's tree planting potential.

But until recently it's not been clear how much land we'd need to make a tangible difference to warming, and whether we'd need to reclaim farm and residential land to do it.

Now new research published today in Science estimates there's enough suitable unused land on the globe for reforestation to store around 205 gigatonnes of carbon.

That's enough to buy us about 20 years in the fight against climate change, according to researcher Jean-Francois Bastin from the Institute of Integrative Biology in Zurich.

Read the story from ABC News by Nick Kilvert - “Climate change could be paused by planting trees, researchers say, as they map out available land.”

Growing more trees means cutting down some: Cris Brack

Planting more trees in our cities is a no-brainer, isn’t it? The federal government certainly thinks so, having last month unveiled a plan to increase the amount of tree cover in Australia’s cities.

Tall trees with luxuriant canopies provide a wide range of benefits to sweltering urbanites. They reduce the urban heat island effect, take up carbon dioxide from the air, reduce wind, muffle traffic noise, help to retain rainwater, attract wildlife, improve human health, and they look nice.

To take an example, Canberra’s 400,000 trees – all planted in the past century or so – now deliver benefits worth up to A$15 million per year.

Read the piece by the Associate Professor Forest measurement and management at the Australian National University, Cris Brack, on The Conversation - “Our cities need more trees, but that means being prepared to cut some down.”