Conifer forests have a tendency to release heat into the environment causing as much damage as fossil fuel burning.
(Mirror Daily, United States) – According to environmental scientists, planting trees actually causes global warming. This is due to the fact that most amateur environmentalists plant conifer trees instead of broadleaved trees that produce a much higher amount of oxygen and also retain a more significant amount of heat in their bodies, as opposed to conifers that eliminate more heat into the atmosphere.
According to the BBC report, the trees that have been planted in Europe since 1750 only increased the effects of climate change or global warming. This is mostly due to the fact that the people that planted the trees at that time preferred conifers over broadleaves.
While it is true that a conifer forest is green the entire year and they host a slightly broader fauna than their broadleaved counterparts, it seems that their overall effect on the environment is not that pleasant.
The European environmental scientists came to the conclusion that Europe’s citizens have been planting, for a couple of hundreds of years, the wrong type of trees. According to them, although conifer trees are green for the entire year, this does not necessarily mean that they are able to produce more oxygen than the broadleaved trees.
It seems that a spruce or pine can absorb more heat due to their darker shades than a broadleaf like a birch or an oak. This might be one of the factors that are encouraging global warming.
The researchers declared that Europe’s problem started during the industrial revolution, somewhere in the middle of the 18th century and it latest until the middle of the 19th century. The factories that were developed in those one hundred years needed raw material which usually consisted of wood and coal. The forested area of Europe was then diminished by 190,000 square kilometers of trees.
The increased usage of fossil fuels leads to a decrease in the demand of wood so Europe began replanting its forests. But it seems that even though and approximate of 386,000 square kilometers of forests have been regrown, they are the wrong type of forests.
Europeans cut down strong, old trees from broadleaved forests and replaced them with conifers that, while they are greener and grow faster, affect the environment as badly as the burning of fossil fuels because they emit a large quantity of heat into the atmosphere causing a rise in global temperature.
The conclusion of the scientists was not for the existing trees to be cut down, but rather a forestation plan is made before any further such actions are taken by “tree-huggers”. The researchers say that there is an imperative need of broadleaved forests.
And since planting trees actually causes global warming, environmentalists should do more thorough research before heading out, buying a Norway spruce or a Scots pine and planting it in the name of the fight against climate change.
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