Many scientists have suggested planting more trees to collect excess carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, but there is not enough room. Thirty to forty billion tons of CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere each year. The entire contiguous United States with trees to capture about 10% of the CO2 emitted. There is not enough room on the planet to have farmland to feed the population and plant the necessary number of trees capture the necessary amount of CO2 that would help meet the goals set by the Paris Agreement.
The Goals set by the Paris Agreement are to keep the global temperature increase to well below two degrees Celsius while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to one and a half degrees. With the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere rising, the global temperature will continue to rise as well. Researchers from Columbia University have been looking at how plants handle climate change, and the results are not good. Plants that live in extreme conditions, with frequent droughts or heat waves, cannot absorb as much CO2 as plants in a stable environment. The researchers found that plants are only absorbing half as much carbon as they would if climate change was not happening.
There have been many efforts to try and curb the increase in carbon dioxide found within the atmosphere. In July of 2016, 800,000 volunteers in India planted fifty million tree saplings. This is a very good first start in a reduction in CO2 levels, but this would have to be replicated 800 times in order to cancel out the CO2 created by humans. Many countries have regulations that require logging companies top replace the trees that are cut. In the United States, it is estimated that three-quarters of all trees planted in 2017 were planted by forest products companies and private timberland owners.
We are coming to a point where new legislation has to be passed to reduce the amount of CO2 produced every year. The trees around the globe are no longer enough to slow down or stop climate change.