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by Deestan 368 days ago
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."
2 comments
somenameforme 368 days ago
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.

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lo0dot0 368 days ago
It's also not possible to tap into the full amount of reduction because of the land use
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somenameforme 367 days ago
The figure they measured, in terms of global acreage, works out to an increase in forestry across 8% of the Earth's land area. That's completely viable, in fact some multiple of that is as well. The overwhelming majority of land on this planet is doing pretty much nothing owing to our habit of packing ourselves into tiny densely packed cities which are supported by a fairly small amount of agriculture - 39% of all land there to be exact. [1]

So this is completely viable, and then some! Even more so if one accounts for the fact that increases in CO2 are creating a substantially greener planet making this even easier.

[1] - https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.LND.AGRI.ZS

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steve_adams_86 368 days ago
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.

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