We Can’t Address the Climate Crisis Without Nature
- Media Manager
- Nov 29, 2023
- 1 min read
TIME
Written By: Thomas Growther
Published: November 29th, 2023
At a climate summit this fall, Bill Gates sparked controversy by dismissing tree planting as a climate crisis solution, calling it “complete nonsense.”
To many, this may seem shocking. But the real issue stems from the misconception that ecosystem restoration is the same as mass ‘tree planting’.
If you are like so many children who grew up watching David Attenborough on TV, the idea of ecosystem restoration probably evokes visions of a beautiful planet with vibrant animals and thriving communities. This beautiful vision is not only inspiring; it is essential for our survival on this planet. This decade has been named the U.N. Decade on Ecosystem Restoration to recognize the urgent need to halt and reverse the destruction of nature.
And yet, as we approach the mid-point of this critical decade, ecosystem restoration has been suffering from an identity crisis that threatens the entire movement. The problem at the heart of this controversy is that there are conflicting ideas about what restoration actually is.
To many people, restoration means planting as many trees as possible to offset carbon emissions. Unfortunately, this view of restoration can be extremely dangerous because tree planting often gets used as an excuse to avoid cutting greenhouse gas emissions, which continue to threaten life as we know it. If the fossil fuel industry continues to spend almost a trillion dollars on expanding new oil and gas operations, even 10 planets full of trees could not offset the devastation that would result.
