Don’t Be Fooled by Carbon Offsets: We Need to Stop Emissions While Drawing Down Carbon.
I’ve been thinking a lot about carbon drawdown projects lately. Specifically, I wonder about the viability of tree planting to draw down carbon and how corporations use tree planting and other offset projects as greenwashing tools. A classic example is the airline industry promoting carbon offsets for flying when in fact they should be reducing air traffic until the industry can be carbon neutral. According to an offset calculator, I’d only need to plant 17 trees for a round-trip flight from Montreal to Helsinki. So, supposedly guilt-free, I could fly and emit as much as I want if I just keep supporting those tree planting projects.
We simply cannot buy our way out of carbon emissions because the planet is exceeding the limits that are safe to sustain human civilization and other plant and animal species. Emissions cannot be compensated for, they must be decreased and eliminated while drawing down what’s in the atmosphere.
Yes, we should support drawdown projects. More importantly, governments should. Policies must be implemented to force these transitions in a just fashion (here I refer to “Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal”). Drawdown purchases and support are not a legitimate means for buying our way out of emissions.
Back to trees…
Are trees a good drawdown strategy?
For trees to make an impact in climate change mitigation, billions of hectares would need to be planted which would take 100 years to reach maturity. It is a great project for the future of the planet if done in a smart way, but is it an effective tool for the 5-to-10-year window we have for stabilizing global heating to 1.5 degrees C?
Sassan Saatchi, a senior scientist at NASA’s Jet propulsion Laboratory, says:
“by the end of the next decade, better results from satellite observations and modeling will likely enable us to determine whether a global forest reforestation will produce the carbon and climate benefits suggested by the new study, and whether it should be undertaken. In the meantime, stopping further deforestation and restoring these areas to their original forest cover of 50 years ago may be the most effective mitigation strategy.”
Planting trees is important and wonderful on many levels — they cool down urban areas, increase mental and physical well-being, provide canopies for food production and habitats for wildlife, etc. However, tree planting shouldn’t be done in an uncritical manner such as haphazard planting, mono-planting, and lack of consideration of broader ecosystem needs. We need to be talking about protecting, strengthening, and restoring ecosystems while keeping in mind how projected weather and temperature changes will impact native plants, trees, and animals.
Project Drawdown has a great list of solutions for reducing heat-trapping gases in different sectors. It reminds us how complex and multi-pronged actions need to be for climate change mitigation. They even have suggestions for the airline industry: “Adopting the latest and most fuel-efficient aircraft; Retrofitting existing aircraft with aerodynamic winglets, better engines, and lighter interiors; Retiring older aircraft early, and Operating existing aircraft with fuel-saving practices.”
Next time I take a flight I’ll think about how often I fly, how old and polluting the plane is I’m about to board, and how heavy the luggage is I’m hauling on board. Then, yes, I’ll plant some trees or support another sustainable, climate mitigating project, but I won’t be fooled to think that it’ll compensate for my emissions because nothing can anymore.