A Trillion Trees: How One Idea Triumphed Over Trump’s Climate Denialism

[90DayFinancier 910]

A Trillion Trees: How One Idea Triumphed Over Trump’s Climate Denialism

 

https://nyti.ms/39tEpYO

 

WASHINGTON — People warned Marc Benioff, the billionaire chief executive of Salesforce, not to bother talking to the White House about global warming. But Mr. Benioff, a tech mogul and environmental philanthropist, felt sure he had found a climate change solution that even President Trump could love: Planting trees.

Never mind that the idea came from former Vice President Al Gore, who has demanded Mr. Trump’s resignation over his energy policies. Never mind that Mr. Trump has begun the yearlong process of withdrawing America from the Paris Agreement on climate change, mocked Greta Thunberg, the teenage climate activist, and worked to eliminate every regulation aimed at reducing planet-warming emissions.

The idea of planting one trillion trees had one enormous political advantage: It was practically sacrifice-free, no war on coal, no transition from fossil fuels, no energy conservation or investment in renewable sources of power that Mr. Trump loves to mock, like the windmills that cause cancer or the solar panels that are not “strong enough.”

 

[Boiler 46,374]

Excellent news, I mainly heat by burning wood.

[90DayFinancier 910]

An opposing opinion

 

Planting Trees Won’t Save the World

Focusing on trees as the big solution to climate change is a dangerous diversion.

By Erle C. Ellis, Mark Maslin and Simon Lewis

The authors are scientists.

 

One trillion trees.

At the World Economic Forum last month, President Trump drew applause when he announced the United States would join the forum’s initiative to plant one trillion trees to fight climate change. More applause for the decision followed at his State of the Union speech.

The trillion-tree idea won wide attention last summer after a study published in the journal Science concluded that planting so many trees was “the most effective climate change solution to date.”

If only it were true. But it isn’t. Planting trees would slow down the planet’s warming, but the only thing that will save us and future generations from paying a huge price in dollars, lives and damage to nature is rapid and substantial reductions in carbon emissions from fossil fuels, to net zero by 2050.

Even a 16-year-old can tell you that.

Focusing on trees as the big solution to climate change is a dangerous diversion. Worse still, it takes attention away from those responsible for the carbon emissions that are pushing us toward disaster. For example, in the Netherlands, you can pay Shell an additional 1 euro cent for each liter of regular gasoline you put in your tank, to plant trees to offset the carbon emissions from your driving. That’s clearly no more than disaster fractionally delayed. The only way to stop this planet from overheating is through political, economic, technological and social solutions that end the use of fossil fuels.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/12/opinion/trump-climate-change-trees.html?0p19G=3248

1 minute ago, Boiler said:

Excellent news, I mainly heat by burning wood.

No so fast, see the post above

[Boiler 46,374]

Ahh well, I only need about 40 a year.

[Dashinka 24,984]

Didn't Al Gore earn a lot of money from planting trees for feel good "offsets"?

 

Since the GND types can't seem to agree, I am now thoroughly confused, should I plant a tree, or cut one down? 

 

Btw, I love how the second story referenced Greta (bow when you say that), and also how they have modified their verbiage to zero emissions from fossil fuel.  I believe they used to simply say we needed to zero out all CO2 emissions.  I suppose we could find another competing story that says we need to follow Bernie's idea of forced abortions and cut down on the planet's population.

[Boiler 46,374]

[TBoneTX 46,426]

17 hours ago, 90DayFinancier said:

Focusing on trees as the big solution to climate change is a dangerous diversion. Worse still, it takes attention away from those responsible for the carbon emissions that are pushing us toward disaster.

Quick -- start cutting down trees as a priority so that the message will remain unobscured*!

     *and so that Boiler will have adequate firewood

16 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

should I plant a tree, or cut one down?

See above,  man.

[Ban Hammer 13,726]

[90DayFinancier 910]

4 hours ago, Ban Hammer said:

Funny, when I listen to "Reds" on this topic, I rarely hear facts brought into the equation, just hand wringing about the hypocrisy of Gore and Greta.