In 2019, a group of volunteers planted 11 million trees in Turkey. Three months later, 90% of them died. The campaign, while well-intentioned, was a complete failure. One would think planting trees would be one of the keys to mitigating climate change, but Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates knows better.
“I don’t plant trees.” That’s how clear Gates was at a recent climate event hosted by The New York Times. The tycoon and philanthropist also added that planting trees to solve climate change is “complete nonsense” to him. The idea makes him particularly angry, as he said, “Are we the science people or are we the idiots?”
Others support this idea. The truth is that significant efforts are still underway to plant millions of trees. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has long championed a project called 1t.org, which aims to plant and preserve one trillion trees. The organization claims this will offset CO2 emissions and achieve the desired goal of zero emissions. Hundreds of companies have joined the effort.
The trees are fantastic. Sean DeWitt, director of the Global Restoration Initiative, explains, “Mr. Gates talks of proven, science-based technologies: Trees are exactly that. Trees not only suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere at rates that far exceed existing ‘technological’ solutions, but they are also far more cost-effective and are key to the functioning of our water and nutrient cycles without which we could not grow food.”
But they’re not enough. The problem is that planting these trillion trees will only prevent the temperature from rising 32 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, according to an analysis by the NGO Climate Interactive. The portion of emissions that this considerable number of trees could capture is only a fraction of the emissions we need to avoid by mid-century. According to author Andrew Jones, one-tenth of 1t.org’s target will only “remove 6% [of the CO2] that would need to be removed by 2050.”
The solution is different. Jones explains that the solution is a distraction. It’s like if a smoker at risk for lung cancer starts eating better and exercising more on medical advice but doesn’t quit smoking, that’s not going to help him much. For Jones, the ideal would be for companies to reduce their emissions. Trees are essential, and it’s crucial to preserve and replant them, but the solution to climate change, as Gates pointed out, albeit somewhat crudely, isn’t simply to plant more and more trees.
This article was written by Javier Pastor and originally published in Spanish on Xataka.
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