July 5, 2019 – Bloomberg’s Eric Roston reported that United Nations and European scientists have hypothesized that a mass restoration of forested land globally could help capture atmospheric carbon and mitigate climate change.

In the report entitled “The Global Tree Restoration Potential“, the scientists mapped the global potential tree coverage to show that 4.4 billion hectares of canopy cover could exist under the current climate.

By restoring largely-continuous canopy cover for an incremental 0.9 billion hectares, forested areas could increase by 25%, absorbing 205 gigatonnes of carbon or roughly 25% of projected atmospheric carbon pool.

The scientists noted that the world faces a race against time. As the world’s climate continues to change, forests in the tropics continue to thin out as a result of changing growing conditions – a vicious cycle.

Read the Bloomberg article.

Read the full report published in the July 5, 2019 edition of Science journal (fees may apply).

Contact Karen Bigelow at KBigelow@BuyMuni.com.