I have a new column this week on OnlySky. It’s about some surprisingly hopeful news: the planet’s forests are growing back.
As agricultural technology becomes more efficient and more people move to cities rather than rural villages, marginal land has been returning to nature. Planet-wide, the rate of deforestation peaked in the 1980s, and it’s been decreasing ever since. In many places, like North America, Europe and China, there’s been a net gain of forest cover since 1990. It turns out nature can regenerate surprisingly fast, if only we give it the opportunity.
Some countries are still cutting down forests, especially tropical developing nations like Brazil and Indonesia. However, a majority of that destruction comes from domestic demand – not cash crops grown for export, as you might assume. That too is a hopeful sign, because it means these countries might soon go through the green transition that many industrialized nations have already completed.
Read the excerpt below, then click through to see the full piece. This column is free to read, but members of OnlySky also get special benefits, like member-only posts and a subscriber newsletter:
While Western-style consumption on a mass scale is unsustainable for the planet, it’s also true that more advanced economies have less environmental impact.
As technology continues to improve, we can adopt more planet-friendly methods—like vertical farming, or agrivoltaics that provide both food and renewable energy, or even precision fermentation and other advanced biotechnology to grow meat substitutes.
These green technologies are a step above fossil-fuel-driven industrial agriculture, which is a step above slash-and-burn farming or subsistence agriculture that requires cutting down trees for firewood. As societies move up this technology curve, their impact on the planet decreases.
If we disseminate these technologies to countries that haven’t yet adopted them—and especially if all us privileged Westerners eat a few less hamburgers—it’s very possible that global deforestation will slow to a halt and then go into reverse. We may well see reforestation on a planetary scale occurring within our lifetimes.
A few decades ago I happened to come across a collection of early photographs of Atlanta, Georgia. Most were taken shortly after the US Civil War.
One thing which struck me was the lack of trees. Now are a lot of possible reasons for a lack of trees, anything from blight to being cut down for firewood during the war. I don’t know. What I do know is that today Atlanta has lots of trees in it’s parks and along it’s streets. Atlanta is proud of it’s trees, and it should be. It shows that re-growth is possible, and rapidly enough that people don’t remember what the old photographs show.
Behind my house is about an acre plot which sixty years ago was an apple orchard. It is now a grove of walnut trees, many less than twenty years old, and a favorite spot for wildlife. North of that is another bit of land which was a hayfield up until thirty years ago. Half of that field is now supporting pine trees.
From what I understand about the dynamics of global warming, we are likely to see belts of vegetation die-off as the climate they currently reside changes. However, there is nothing which prevents vegetation from spreading into newly formed environments which suit.
The difficulty is the speed. If the changes occur too fast there will be little time for natural spreading prior to extinction. Which means that maybe humanity should work to identify species which are at risk and where they could be relocated successfully. It’s a huge task, but surprisingly, one which doesn’t necessarily need a centralized organization. Single individuals can, if the information about which species of vegetation are at risk and where are good places to plant are available, make a small difference. It is a lot more difficult to do this with animal species, but we can start somewhere.
@flex
” It is now a grove of walnut trees, many less than twenty years old,”
You need to realise that the lifespan of a walnut tree is 100-300 years.
“we are likely to see belts of vegetation die-off as the climate they currently reside changes. However, there is nothing which prevents vegetation from spreading into newly formed environments which suit.”
Yes… over the span of multiple generations… This is more like seeing a refugee camp filled with *only* young children, and saying “look! the new generation is adapting to their new circumstances!”