A new study released by researchers at the University of California, Riverside, has found that planting trees can help cool the planet in the face of rising global temperatures. However, even if every tree lost to deforestation since the 19th century were replanted, it would not offset human-generated planet warming; that can only be undone through cutting pollution.
Researchers modeled forests by discovering their pre-industrial make-up and found that the trees could lower the global average temperature by 0.34 degrees Celsius (.61 degrees Fahrenheit), a figure that is only a quarter of the 1.1 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) the planet has experienced.
The study found that in tropical areas, trees have a more powerful cooling effect as they are more efficient at absorbing carbon and they produce greater BVOCs, which are biogenic volatile organic compounds that are crucial to reflecting sunlight and producing cloud formation…