Woodwell Climate | Protect Old Growth Now

Of all the tools we have to fight climate change, there's one we're destroying. Instead of deploying trees, big old trees, each year, forests absorb and store more than a quarter of human greenhouse gas emissions. Tropical forests do this best. And half the carbon they hold is found in just the biggest, oldest 1% of trees. One mature canopy tree can store as much carbon as three. Three dozen smaller mid canopy trees. 165 understory trees, more than 2,500 saplings covering a huge area of land. It would take any one of them decades, if not centuries, to accumulate the carbon already in that one big tree. Today, in the race to control climate change, we don't have that kind of time. Cutting old growth and planting new trees is like smashing installed solar panels and promising to put more up later. Restoring and expanding forests is vitally important, but no substitute for preserving the forests we have. Protect old growth now.