How Reforestation Efforts Could Be The Key To Fighting Climate Change

NPR

Published December 23, 2024 at 9:23 AM EST

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Giant Sequoia trees with basal burns from wildfires are seen in the Giant Sequoia tree and mixed conifer forest of the Redwood Mountain Grove in Kings Canyon National Park on the western slope of California's Sierra Nevada mountains.

Most of us know that trees can help reduce the impacts of climate change by taking in carbon dioxide.

Most of us also know that scientists and environmental authorities have been sounding alarms for the better part of the last decade about the devastating effects of climate change.

Could trees store enough carbon, with a lot of help from us, to offset humanity's carbon emissions? What's the role of trees in our fight against climate change? And what's better left to other climate solutions?

We talk to an author whose new book explores whether or not serious reforestation efforts can really be an effective solution to reducing the carbon in our atmosphere.

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