Page 28 - aruba-today-20190706

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 6 July 2019
Best way to fight climate change? Plant a trillion trees

By SETH BORENSTEIN emphasized.
AP Science Writer "None of this works without
WASHINGTON (AP) — The emissions cuts," he said.
most effective way to fight Nor is it easy or realistic to
global warming is to plant think the world will sud-
lots of trees, a study says. denly go on a tree-plant-
A trillion of them, maybe ing binge, although many
more. groups have started ,
And there's enough room, Crowther said.
Swiss scientists say. Even "It's certainly a monumental
with existing cities and challenge, which is exactly
farmland, there's enough the scale of the problem of
space for new trees to cov- climate change," he said.
er 3.5 million square miles (9 As Earth warms, and es-
million square kilometers), pecially as the tropics dry,
they reported in Thursday's tree cover is being lost, he
journal Science . That area noted.
is roughly the size of the The researchers used
United States. Google Earth to see what
The study calculated that areas could support more
over the decades, those trees, while leaving room
new trees could suck up for people and crops.
nearly 830 billion tons (750 Lead author Jean-Francois
billion metric tons) of heat- Bastin estimated there's
trapping carbon dioxide space for at least 1 trillion
from the atmosphere. In this Dec. 4, 2018 file photo, people walk in Tree Library park in Milan, Italy. The city has ambi- more trees, but it could be
tious plans to plant 3 million new trees by 2030_ a move that experts say could offer relief to the
That's about as much car- city's muggy and sometimes tropical weather. 1.5 trillion.
bon pollution as humans Associated Press That's on top of the 3 tril-
have spewed in the past 25 lion trees that now are on
years. solution" and the most ef- Crowther figured that there Mason University conserva- Earth, according to earlier
Much of that benefit will fective, said study co-au- were other more effec- tion biologist who wasn't Crowther research.
come quickly because thor Thomas Crowther, a tive ways to fight climate part of the study, called The study's calculations
trees remove more carbon climate change ecologist change besides cutting it "a good news story" be- make sense, said Stanford
from the air when they are at the Swiss Federal Institute emissions, such as people cause planting trees would University environmental
younger, the study authors of Technology in Zurich. switching from meat-eat- also help stem the loss of scientist Chris Field, who
said. The potential for re- Six nations with the most ing to vegetarianism. But, biodiversity. wasn't part of the study.
moving the most carbon is room for new trees are Rus- he said, tree planting is far Planting trees is not a sub- "But the question of wheth-
in the tropics. sia, the United States, Can- more effective because stitute for weaning the er it is actually feasible to
"This is by far — by thou- ada, Australia, Brazil and trees take so much carbon world off burning oil, coal restore this much forest is
sands of times — the China. dioxide out of the air. and gas, the chief cause of much more difficult," Field
cheapest climate change Before his research, Thomas Lovejoy, a George global warming, Crowther said in an email.q

Baby lobster numbers spell trouble for

shellfish population

By PATRICK WHITTLE Harbor to Cape Cod, he tists have said the shellfish
Associated Press said. appear to be moving north
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) Young lobsters settle into as waters warm.
— Baby lobsters are con- the ocean bottom, where "It's as if this wave that has
tinuing to appear in high they take shelter as they crested in Maine is now in-
numbers off some parts of grow. Wahle tracks where creasing in Atlantic Cana-
Canada while tailing off in lobsters are settling in 23 da," Wahle said.
New England, raising ques- areas from Rhode Island to New England's commercial
tions about what the valu- Prince Edward Island, Can- harvest of lobster has been
able shellfish's population ada. strong in recent years, but
In this May 9, 2016 file photo, a marine biologist holds a young will look like in several years. This year's data showed it's dependent on young
lobster on Friendship Long Island, Maine. University of Maine scientist high totals in Canadian lo- lobsters growing to maturi-
Associated Press Rick Wahle has document- cations such as St. Mary's ty. Some New England sites,
ed trends in baby lobster Bay, Nova Scotia, and the such as those off Rhode Is-
density for years, and re- southern Gulf of St. Law- land, show few baby lob-
leased new data for 2018 rence, but low numbers in sters at all. America's lob-
this month. The new data Maine fishing areas such as ster industry is based mostly
reinforce recent trends the Midcoast region and in Maine, and its haul of
about lobsters that show Casco Bay. the crustaceans has been
upticks off sites in Atlantic American fishermen com- high all decade. The state's
Canada, such as some ar- pete with Canada for the catch peaked at an all-
eas in Nova Scotia, Wahle same species of lobster, time high of 132.6 million in
said. Meanwhile, the Gulf which anchors one of the 2016 before falling to 111.9
of Maine reported below most lucrative fisheries in million — still a historically
average numbers from Bar either country. Some scien- high number — in 2017.q