Forests: Our Best Climate Solution

Forests are the cheapest, easiest, and most efficient way to address climate change.

forests are vital to fighting climate change.

Forests are the simplest, most natural, and most effective ways to address the climate crisis. Protecting forests alone could reduce half of the world’s climate emissions by 2050, according to a recent study in the journal Nature.

How exactly do forests cool the planet? Trees absorb carbon from the air and store it in their tissues through photosynthesis, converting it into the oxygen we all need to live. There is no better, more efficient, or cheaper carbon-capture technology than photosynthesis.

Because forests are full of large trees and other plants, they store massive amounts of carbon. But when they are burned or chopped down, much of that carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Protecting forests is one of our best climate solutions.

Forests also moderate local temperatures, play an important role in maintaining rainfall and weather patterns, reduce erosion and run-off into rivers, reduce the incidence of drought and flood, and provide critical habitat for millions of species.

We are simultaneously experiencing a climate crisis and species extinction crisis. Protecting forests is the best way to address both. More than 80 percent of all terrestrial species depend on forests. By protecting our remaining forests, we can safeguard the future of millions of species—including our own.