Our forests perform myriad services: They purify our air, sequester and store carbon from the atmosphere, foster biodiversity, yield products of great value to human societies, stabilize water supplies, protect and enrich soils, and offer us inspiration and happiness. But as climate change accelerates, drawing carbon out of the air has become their most critical role.
Trees buffer the worst effects of climate change by incorporating carbon in their growth cycle, thus preventing its return to the atmosphere for dozens or even hundreds of years. Currently, about a third of all human-produced carbon emissions are absorbed by trees and other land plants.
Of great alarm, however, is that the planet’s forests are shrinking. They have been reduced by half during the last 300 years. All are in jeopardy because of rising temperatures and increasingly unusual rainfall patterns. These changes inflict more frequent droughts, pest outbreaks, and wildfires. Trees are dying at the fastest rate ever recorded. Californians are only too aware of these shifting patterns.