Scientists say evidence is mounting that trees can have a far-reaching effect in stemming global warming by removing huge amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. A recent study bolsters this idea, and tree-planting advocates say it’s something they’ve known for decades.
The recent European study published in Science magazine July 5 says trees could potentially absorb two-thirds of the carbon that has been added to the atmosphere as a result of human activity since the Industrial Revolution.
The study, headed by researchers at the Crowther Lab at ETH Zurich, a technical university, found that an extra 500 billion trees, covering an area roughly the size of the United States, could remove 200 gigatons of carbon from the air when they reach maturity.
The study’s authors say that combined with reduced greenhouse gas emissions, adding so many extra trees could replenish the world’s shrinking stock by 2050 and provide the most effective climate change solution to date.
The scientists say that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050, the goal of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, will require an extra billion hectares of forest, an increase of nearly 20% over existing forest land.
It is a race against time, however, since a warming planet means the area available for tree planting is shrinking.
Scientific Studies Say Planting Trees Helps Mitigate Global Warming video player.
WATCH: Scientific Studies Say Planting Trees Helps Mitigate Global Warming
Act locally
There are a few remaining trees in a section of the Angeles National Forest, northeast of Los Angeles, where volunteers are removing invasive species such as mustard and types of thistle, and restoring native plants “… about 40 different species,” said Thierry Rivard of the nonprofit TreePeople.
The newly sown plants are grasses, Rivard said. “Some of them are what you would call shrubs. Some of them are trees — oaks, elderberries.”
They had thrived in this area in a balanced ecosystem until recent times, when they were crowded out by other species brought by human activity.
On a recent weekend, dozens of volunteers pulled out invasive plants and carried water buckets through the rolling hills to nurture saplings.
The restoration will make the hillsides more resistant to wildfires, since invasive plants dry out in the summer to create conditions for flash fuels.
At the heart of the project are trees.
“Trees have multiple benefits,” said Cindy Montanez, the CEO of TreePeople. “Trees shade humans, the environment, as we see dramatic increases in extreme heat. Trees help retain water in situations where there’s flooding (and) we’re trying to prevent water runoff,” she added.
FILE – In the Atlantic Forest in Bahia, fire and deforestation of hill slopes are forbidden by Brazilian law, but law enforcement is ineffective. (Credit: IESB archive)
Reducing deforestation
A major effort to reduce deforestation and expand existing forests is underway around the world, including the Thirty Hills project in Sumatra’s forests, and Trillion Trees, with efforts focused, so far, in parts of South America and Africa .
Both projects were undertaken by the World Wildlife Fund and partner organizations as part of a comprehensive approach that encourages ecologically sound industries. For example, forest-friendly methods of cocoa production in Africa and honey production in Indonesia.
Forest restoration is not without challenges, and researchers must take into account “areas where we have grazing lands, or we have important grasslands, or we need to consider what the land ownership is,” said Christa Anderson, a research fellow with the World Wildlife Fund.
Anderson said studies have found that so-called boreal forests in northern latitudes absorb light from the sun and can have a warming effect, and that reforestation works better in some places than others. The research paper in Science says six countries have the potential to restore more than half of the needed trees: Russia, the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil and China.
Scores of governments have pledged to help, joining the Bonn Challenge, an effort to restore 150 million hectares of forest by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030.
“It’s one of the pieces, and another huge piece is reducing our energy and industry emissions. We really need both things,” Anderson said.
FILE – Mexico’s new climate law promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020, which should make a difference in Mexico City, among the most polluted cities in the world.
Individuals and local communities can also help, Montanez said.
“Take personal responsibility, help plant trees,” she said. “It’s fun, it makes our communities greener, more climate-resilient, more sustainable.”
And trees make our planet more livable, she added.
After three summits and several exchanges of letters between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Washington must now deal with Pyongyang’s five missile tests since February and near muted talks on denuclearization, results generated by Trump’s lack of criticism of the launches, experts said.
North Korea fired two more missiles Friday, making the launch a third test in just more than a week. The launch follows two other tests it conducted Wednesday and last Thursday.
Kim Jong Un and North Korea tested 3 short range missiles over the last number of days. These missiles tests are not a violation of our signed Singapore agreement, nor was there discussion of short range missiles when we shook hands. There may be a United Nations violation, but..
Earlier this year, on May 4 and May 9, North Korea conducted launches and broke 18 months of abstaining from raising provocations on the Korean Peninsula as it began denuclearization diplomacy with the Trump administration that culminated in the historical Singapore summit in June 2018.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo links hands with Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and Thailand’s Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai at the East Asia Summit meeting in Bangkok, Aug.2, 2019.
Also Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said a meeting with North Korea is unlikely to take place in Bangkok at the annual security meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the venue the two sides have used to meet for sideline talks in the past. This year, North Korea did not send Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho to the event.
“We stand ready to continue our diplomatic conversations with the North Koreans,” Pompeo said at a news conference in Bangkok. “I regret that it looks like I’m not going to have the opportunity to do that while I’m here in Bangkok, but we’re ready to go.”
Pompeo remained optimistic that the working-level talks Trump and Kim agreed to resume at their impromptu inter-Korean border summit in June “will happen before too long.”
People watch a TV that shows a file picture of a North Korean missile for a news report on North Korea firing short-range ballistic missiles, in Seoul, South Korea, July 31, 2019.
‘No progress’
Experts said despite the U.S. efforts, the prospects for denuclearizing are fading as North Korea takes opposite steps as seen through its tests.
“There has been no progress toward North Korean denuclearization since the Singapore summit,” said Bruce Klingner, former CIA deputy division chief for Korea and a current fellow at the Heritage Foundation. “Instead, Pyongyang has built another six to seven estimated nuclear weapons and improved the production facilities for its fissile material.”
Evans Revere, acting assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific at the State Department during the George W. Bush administration, said, “The opposite of denuclearization is happening, as North Korea continues to expand and enhance its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenals.”
Revere said the string of launches demonstrates Pyongyang’s weapons development is becoming more advanced.
In May, Pyongyang tested “an apparent new ballistic missile system that is designed to conduct deep strikes against U.S. and [South Korean] military bases, forces and population centers,” Revere said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the test-fire of two short-range ballistic missiles, in this undated picture released by North Korea’s Central News Agency, July 26, 2019.
The launch July 25 was aimed at signaling the U.S. that it is determined to ramp up “its nuclear, missile, and first-strike missile capabilities,” he said.
The projectiles launched Friday, assessed by the U.S. and South Korea to be short-range ballistic missiles, are considered similar to the previous ones.
Following Wednesday’s test, North Korea said the new multiple rocket launch system was developed in an effort to modernize its military. South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that North Korea’s new submarine, unveiled July 23, is capable of launching ballistic missiles.
FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump holds up the document he and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un signed, June 12, 2018, in Singapore.
Details lacking
The prospects of denuclearizing North Korea began with the historical Singapore summit held in June 2018 when Trump and Kim met and agreed to work toward denuclearization and achieving peace on the Korean Peninsula, although critics argue the joint statement the two issued lacked detailed denuclearization agreements.
Also notable at the Singapore summit was the budding of the so-called Trump-Kim bromance, a relationship that blossomed via several exchanges of “love” letters between the two since then. Trump said he “fell in love” with Kim and has described several letters from him as “beautiful.”
Optimism that had been building toward denuclearization proved to be too tenuous at the Hanoi summit when North Korea revealed it wanted sanctions relief for taking a partial denuclearization step, an offer the U.S. rejected. The summit was abruptly cut short, leading to a diplomatic impasse that lasted several months.
The bromance continued, however, despite lack of progress on denuclearization talks. Even after Pyongyang launched in May what experts described as advanced missiles capable of evading South Korean missile defense system designed to intercept incoming missiles, Trump appeared confident that Kim would denuclearize, emphasizing the pair’s relationship.
FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in leave after a meeting at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019.
While visiting Seoul in June for a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Trump invited Kim to “shake his hand and say Hello” via Twitter. Trump met with Kim at the inter-Korean border, even stepping across the North Korean side of the border. There, the two agreed to resume working-level talks.
But less than a month later, Pyongyang fired missiles last Thursday and again this week on Wednesday and Friday, jolting its neighbors and unnerving North Korean observers in the U.S.
Trump downplayed the provocations saying, “I have no problem,” in response to Friday’s launch, in an apparent effort to save diplomacy.
In response to last week’s launch, Revere, of the State Department, said, “The Trump administration is prepared to go very far to keep the prospect of dialogue with North Korea alive.”
Following North Korea’s missile launches Wednesday, “It was unacceptable for the U.S. president to twice dismiss the threat posed by North Korea’s development” of advanced missiles that is intended to attack [South Korea] and U.S. troops deployed in South Korea,” he added.
Questionable relationship
Experts said North Korea’s tests make the Trump-Kim relationship look questionable and prospects for diplomatic solutions dubious, while Trump’s lack of criticism on North Korea’s launches fosters bad behavior.
Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council said, “North Korea’s continued work on its nuclear weapons program and missiles as demonstrated by testing new short-range missiles is beginning to make the Trump-Kim relationship wear thin, if not look like a bit of a fraud.”
Christopher Hill, a chief negotiator with North Korea during the George W. Bush administration, said, “I’m skeptical that they have much traction on [diplomacy] right now.”
Revere said, “The lack of a clear and vigorous response to earlier launches effectively gave [North Korea] carte blanche to continue to develop and test these dangerous weapons.” He added, “We have now basically normalized such launches.”
The missile launches are also making experts doubt the prospects for working-level talks with Pyongyang.
Hill said, “I don’t think the North Koreans are really prepared for a serious negotiation. But since they agreed to have a negotiation, I think they ought to move ahead.”
Dennis Wilder, the National Security Council’s senior director for East Asia affairs during the George W. Bush administration, said, “Kim has never been interested in working-level talks with Washington. And I think that’s going to be kind of his continued position.”
If Pyongyang continues to dodge Washington, Hill said, “It’s possible the talks could reach a dead end. That could happen at some point. It may have happened [already], but we don’t know that.”
Wilder said, “It would certainly lead to another very serious deterioration in the U.S.-North Korean relations, as we had at the end of 2017 where there would be threats and counterthreats.”
Wilder, however, did not rule out a sudden turnaround, a possibility in top-down diplomacy where negotiations occur at the leadership level.
“This is the unique feature of Trump diplomacy at this very high level,” Wilder said. “It can change overnight. … When you have two chief executives, who can suddenly make dramatic shifts, possibilities are much wider.”
WASHINGTON — U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Palmer says an unresolved extortion investigation in North Macedonia could undermine prospects for the small Balkan nation’s long-awaited European Union accession talks.
North Macedonia’s former chief Special Prosecutor, Katica Janeva, unexpectedly tendered her resignation last month amid allegations that she masterminded a scheme to extort millions from an indicted businessman in exchange for a reduced sentence.
Janeva’s Special Prosecution Office (SPO), an organized-crime-busting outfit also tasked with addressing high-level corruption, has long been emblematic of the former Yugoslav republic’s transatlantic aspirations. By spearheading investigations of the now-ousted authoritarian regime of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, Janeva’s office was largely mandated to restore rule of law.
“These are serious charges and all such serious charges require a serious response,” Palmer told VOA’s Serbian Service. “We support a complete, thorough, transparent investigation of these charges and, if the evidence is there, then appropriate prosecution. This is really an opportunity for the authorities in North Macedonia to demonstrate fealty to adherence to the rule of law.”
FILE – Newly elected President of North Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski, right, walks with outgoing president Gjorge Ivanov, during his inauguration ceremony in Skopje, North Macedonia, May 12, 2019.
The country changed its name from Macedonia to North Macedonia in February, ending a more than two-decade dispute with Greece over its name, and removing an obstacle to EU and NATO membership.
Just last week, EU commissioner Johannes Hahn said Skopje needs to reform the judiciary to ensure it can handle high-level crime and corruption cases before the EU can set a date to start accession talks, but that he was “confident that the decision (on the start of EU accession talks) will be taken in October.”
Palmer said he’s optimistic talks can begin this fall, but that resolving the Janeva investigation will be key to ensuring it happens.
Both of North Macedonia’s major political parties have been squabbling over the drafting of a law to regulate the prosecution, which will determine the fate of the special prosecutor’s office that Janeva used to run.
“We believe that North Macedonia has earned that opportunity [to have EU accession talks begin this year], but … signals that the government sends — and the success of the SPO law — will be important to that.”
FILE – Protesters take part in a demonstration near the Greek Parliament against the agreement with Skopje to rename neighbouring country Macedonia as the Republic of North Macedonia, Jan. 20, 2019 in Athens.
Whether new legislation can be ratified, a precondition for EU accession talks, will determine the pace of North Macedonia’s European accession process, which is why both U.S. and EU officials have repeatedly pressed both parties, the right-wing opposition VMRO-DPMNE and ruling Social Democratic Union, to come to an agreement.
Meetings between party officials earlier this week produced indications of progress, but working groups are still in negotiations.
“It’s important that these parties come together, negotiate, resolve their differences and reach an agreement on how the SPO can be reformed or modified in a manner that advances the interests of the country,” Palmer told VOA.
“There’s been enough politicking. The time for politicking is over. Now is the time for statesmanship,” he said.
Another scientific study has confirmed that trees can have a far-reaching effect in stemming global warming by removing large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. Tree-planting advocates say this is something they’ve known for decades, and the world is finally getting the message. Mike O’Sullivan has more from Los Angeles.
There are 48 insects included on the U.S. Endangered Species List, and the only way any insect has ever come off the list is through extinction. This is especially troubling for the world’s butterfly populations, which have declined by 20% in the last decades. Erika Celeste takes us to visit one of the rarest wild butterfly populations in the world, the Mitchell’s satyr butterfly at the Sarett Nature Center in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
