What really matters

Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are still rising, as are temperatures. The CO2 we emit now will be trapping extra heat on Earth for hundreds of years to come.

The best analogy is to think of the earth’s atmosphere as a bathtub and the CO2 as water. Even if we reduce the flow of water into the bathtub it will continue filling up. It is only by turning off the tap that can we stop the bath from filling any further. And, just like bathtubs, our atmosphere also has drains: carbon sinks. The problem is that these carbon sinks are being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of CO2 which we are emitting. Worse, by cutting down forests, we are also destroying those sinks… or blocking the drain and risking an overflowing bathtub.

To stay below 1.5°C of warming requires immediate emissions reductions now. And not only must we reduce the 40 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases that human activities spew out globally every year, we must cumulatively remove them too. 

There are two ways to do this. Technology is one way, but it is unproven and unlikely to work at scale. Natural carbon sinks such as forests, soils and oceans are another. As we have seen, forests remove CO2 from the air as they grow, storing the carbon in their wood, roots, leaves and needles, but also under the soil. The world’s forests have removed some 2 billion metric tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere every year since 2000. With the oceans rapidly approaching saturation, natural and naturalised forests represent the best and cheapest way we have of capturing and sequestering CO2. 

But not if we cut them down. And certainly not if we burn the resulting wood.

Which is why every tree burnt matters, every fraction of a degree matters, every day matters. 

And every choice matters.

Burning wood is the opposite of a green transition, which is all about changing to emission free heat sources. So let’s stop burning trees and invest in the infinite renewables instead.