In the fight to curb climate change, there are few solutions more discussed than planting lots and lots of trees.
在遏制气候变化的斗争中,讨论最多的方案莫过于大量植树。
It sounds simple enough— trees absorb CO2 from the atmosphere to grow, so planting more of them should help eliminate greenhouse gases.
听起来很简单:树木生长会吸收大气中的二氧化碳,因此,种植更多树木应该有助于消除温室气体。
The trouble is, tree planting efforts don't always work as planned.
问题是植树工作并非总按计划进行。
For example, between 1974 and 2012, the Chilean government helped fund the planting of over a million hectares of new trees.
例如,在1974年至2012年间,智利政府资助种植了超过一百万公顷的新树。
Yet a recent analysis suggests this multi-million dollar effort resulted in no major carbon storage gains.
然而,最近的一项分析表明,这项数百万美元的努力并未带来重大的碳储量收益。
What went wrong?
出了什么问题?
Chile focused on afforestation: the planting of trees in places long devoid of— or never home to— any forest, as opposed to reforestation,
智利侧重于植树造林,即在长期没有或从未有森林的地方植树,而不是森林恢复,
the practice of restoring recently degraded forests.
即恢复最近退化的森林的做法。
Many governments and international organizations champion afforestation in their efforts to meet lofty tree planting goals that require massive amounts of land.
许多政府和国际组织倡导植树造林,努力实现崇高植树目标,此举需要大量土地。
The Bonn Challenge, launched in 2011 by the German government and the International Union for Conservation of Nature,
德国政府和国际自然保护联盟于2011年发起了波恩挑战,
aims to restore 350 million hectares of degraded land across the globe by 2030, in part through afforestation.
旨在到2030年恢复全球3.5亿公顷的退化土地,部分方法就是植树造林。
Many companies have also seized on tree planting to offset emissions and, in some cases,
许多公司还利用植树来抵消排放,而且某些情况下,
negative PR from their contributions to the climate emergency.
还用对气候紧急情况的贡献来抵消负面公关。
A 2021 Oxfam analysis found that the area needed to match the tree planting goals set by four of the largest oil and gas producers would require land twice the size of the UK.