Forests offset warming more than thought: study

[bob1029]

I think there are other benefits to having a lot of trees around you.

As a resident of the Houston area, I am abundantly familiar with the idea of an urban heat island. The difference between a hot day inside the 610 loop and one 50 miles north is quite significant.

I moved from what is effectively the middle of the world's largest parking lot to the middle of a forest and I feel like I've transported myself 1000 miles instead of 50.

I've also developed a strong sense that the forest seems to have some kind of influence over the weather patterns. Not a strong or active one, but it definitely seems like a thing when you're watching Doppler radar.

[steve_adams_86]

The science behind how forests impact weather is still developing, so I can’t make wild claims like I want to. Yet the evidence is extremely compelling. Trees seem to induce rain, reduce turbulence from winds, and as this article mentions, cool the air far more than we thought.

Trees seem to be—unsurprisingly—specialist organisms in the art of maximizing local hydrological features. They help create wetter environments so more trees can live there, and things can get a little more wet still, for more trees, then more water, and so on.

The research I’ve read is mostly along the lines of “we’ve observed these really interesting patterns and we suspect these are the underlying mechanisms”, but as I recall, proving the cause and effect of such large scale phenomenons isn’t trivial. I’m also not someone who researches this stuff, so my take on it is essentially irrelevant. The bottom line is: lots of evidence and research supports your observation, and it’s an extremely interesting field of research. I think it’s the key to making life better for a lot of life on the planet.

[bregma]

I experience the opposite effect.

Where I live the forest effectively disappears every autumn, and then it gets really cold. Six months later the forest grows back and then it gets really hot. The ambient temperature is obviously intimately correlated with the presence or absence of the forest.

[somenameforme]

This becomes even more apparent when you move to cities that are more integrated with local forests in part. You drive by the foresty adjacent area, not even in the forest, and the temperature drops dramatically, easily 5+ C. And as CO2 increases, so too is greenery. [1]

[1] - https://science.nasa.gov/earth/climate-change/co2-is-making-...

[metalman]

Houston eh!, well let me tell you that I use the GOES sattelites for local weather observation, and general real time views of varios conditions..... and Houston is the one city that stands right out, instantly visible and radiating in the infra red, never been there, but your spoke roads must be fucking HUGE, to be vissible from geosynchronous orbit, the whole thing working as a heat absorber/radiator. as a "controll" try as I might, Mexico city (others),remain invisible in the same images

[wjnc]

About the weather patterns. We live near a large area of natural dunes. In school we were taught that the natural dunes reflect sunlight, leading to rising air. Although I can't remember the exact meteorology (rising air generally leads to rain) they showed us the precipitation patterns and the surrounding areas get more rain and the dunes less. As a layman, I except forest vs. concrete will lead to similar situations. More rain near forests, less near concrete. Is that what you see on radar?

I now see that u/steve_adams posted pretty much the same point. I wonder how I was taught this 25 years ago in high school, with local graphs for evidence, and it still isn't scientific consensus. Super local weather models aren't a thing? (This is in jest, they obviously are a thing. Perhaps it's harder than I imagine.)

[AbstractH24]

I misread this at first and understood it to say “growing trees is better for reducing global warming than performative hypothetical discussions thinking about the negative impacts of global warming”

[nothrowaways]

> restoring forests to their preindustrial extent could lower global average temperatures by 0.34 degrees Celsius

[Sharlin]

Which would be an absolutely huge (and practically impossible) change in, say, Western Europe. Maybe 80–90% of all farmland would have to be reforested. It was difficult enough to get people to agree on the 20% goal of EU's Nature Restoration Regulation.

[ImHereToVote]

Why stop at pre-industrial. We can go extra-natural. Naturally most forests were grazed at by large roaming herbivores.

[ambientenv]

Some interesting, recent discussion: "Interview at the Technical University of Munich: Not only are forests more complex than is commonly realized, they also do more." [1]

[1]: https://bioticregulation.substack.com/p/in-focus-green-ocean...

[morsch]

Actual title and subtitle:

Does planting trees really help cool the planet?

Forests offset warming more than thought, but not enough

[jopicornell]

By itself

[TimByte]

Restoring forests is clearly valuable, especially in the tropics, but it's not a get-out-of-jail-free card for emissions. The fact that even replanting all lost trees would only offset about 0.34°C puts things in perspective.

[baxtr]

What’s 0.34 Celsius in years? I think it’s at least a decade which isn’t that bad.

[pandemic_region]

Trees baby, trees is the campaign slogan we'll never hear anywhere.

[11235813213455]

"Have trees, not babies nor pets to save the planet"

[fuzztester]

I had read this book many years ago.

thought it was good.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1481687.The_Forest_an...

https://www.amazon.com/Forest-Sea-Economy-Nature-Ecology/dp/...

[drak0n1c]

Is it possible to genetically engineer fast-growing but sterile trees that are 5x the height and width of mature hardwoods? Plant one in every sizeable park, greenbelt, and plaza. Would add some nice green variety to skylines and suburbs and make for comfortable shade for much of the surrounding area and trails. The only downside is liability and danger of falling limbs, especially during storms.

[apercu]

I know nothing about this but typically fast growing trees are less sturdy (they shed a lot of branches) and short-lived.

[MrVandemar]

I doubt it.

Where would these enormous fast-growing trees get their hefty nutrient requirements from?

[orcul]

Yeah, too bad we cut them.

[enaaem]

Imo too much of environmental discussions are focused around climate change, which causes an automatic allergic reaction in roughly half the population. Much better is to focus on things everyone already agrees on. More plants is better, cleaner water is better and cleaner air is better. Improving these things automatically helps against climate change. It works well politically because you have immediate tangible results. Who isn’t happier when they see more trees?

[Deestan]

This is a good example of a headline that is both accurate and dishonestly misleading.

Like if we discovered spitting at a housefire would slow it down more than expected, it's still not preventing it from burning to the ground. It's just going to allow some asshat to say "See? Let's defund the fire brigade."

[somenameforme]

It states that reforestation would result in a reduction in excess of 25% of all observed warming since preindustrial times. And there is every reason to believe there's even more feedback systems we are, as of yet, unaware of that could increase that further (though also potentially decrease it of course).

In any case it's certainly not spitting at a fire.

[steve_adams_86]

I see where you’re coming from, and maybe you meant to be hyperbolic, but the impact of forests on quality of life for humans goes beyond cooling effects, which on their own are more significant than you’re giving credit. I think there’s more to gain here than you’d get in the house fire scenario.

I also don’t see anyone wanting to defund other efforts because trees make a difference. We may see local improvements, but I doubt we’d see global improvements such that anyone would think we’re home free. I could be wrong.

I see this as more of a quality of life improvement that could help make the inevitable bigger fight more bearable.

[qtwhat]

or does it mean we should stop Reforestation??? ^^

[datameta]

This seems like a good takeaway to me