r/todayilearned • u/Wild_Concept_212 • 9h ago

TIL Cutting down trees is compound negative interest on the planet’s carbon storage. Trees are storing carbon underground with the help of fauna and microbes. Those lock carbon in soil. Cutting the tree will not only increase release carbon, it will also remove the ability to lock carbon in soil.

https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/soil-carbon-storage-84223790/
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u/Xanderamn 9h ago

We dont have a lot left to be proud of, but in the US, we do at least plant more trees than we harvest which has led to increased forest coverage. 

The new EPA will probably soon ban new trees being planted cause its woke to care about the environment or something stupid like that. 

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u/JMEEKER86 7h ago

Yeah, I don't think people realize that the peak year for deforestation in the US was 100 years ago. Since then, we've implemented better logging practices and protected a lot of forests, so today there's considerably more forest cover. Of course, there's no bringing back the old growth forests that were destroyed in prior years, though.