in northern Ontario in the early 1990s called tree planting part of the problem: “Now when I think of that summer, I don’t think that I was planting trees at all. I was planting thousands of blowtorches a day.”
Trees suck in carbon and emit oxygen. Without trees, we would find it difficult to breathe. The forests of Canada store a large chunk of Earth’s carbon; even the epic carbon released by this summer’s fires is a tiny fraction of that stored in our forests. We want that carbon storage to increase – by adding trees.
We also need to protect more intact forests, as more than 90 scientists and researchers, mostly from North America, pleaded with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in anlast year: “Canada’s primary and older forests have a key role to play in preserving a safe and livable world, and the government can make a significant contribution by prioritizing keeping these vital and irreplaceable ecosystems standing.