Careful Where You Put That Tree

Ant writes "Wired News is reporting that according to Stanford University's atmospheric scientist Ken Caldeira, forests in the wrong location can actually make the Earth hotter. From the article: 'Plants absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, so scientists and policy makers have long assumed new forest growth helps combat global warming. At an American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco earlier this month, however, Caldeira rolled out a provocative new finding: Trees may be good at capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but their dark leaves are also very efficient at soaking up sunlight, which is later released as heat. At certain latitudes, the net effect of these two processes is warming, rather than cooling.'"

Solution:

[Poromenos1]

Plant them in antarctica! That's where all the problem is, and it gets way too little sun. Problem solved!

Uhhh...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not the trees we need to worry about, it's those phytoplankton in the oceans. Whales eat them (therefore we need to nuke the whales).

I'm so torn

[mcgroarty]

This past week, the New York Times reported on an article in Nature that explained how industrial and automobile pollutants may turn out to have a cooling impact, owing to long-standing misestimation of their ability to deflect the sun's heat.

See, here's where I'm torn: I happen to like global warming. It would be good for farming and would make a greater percentage of the civilized world comfortable for our aging population. But the part where I'm torn is that the articles I'm reading this week tell me that to get my wish, I do precisely what the environmentalists have been urging since the 80s. Drive less and plant more trees, but this time in support of global warming!

There's one solution!

[Wingfield]

We must run frantically to this new train of thought, and cut down all trees. However, before doing that, we must destroy any evidence that trees were ever beneficial in the first place. Minitrue will deal with this. 2+2=5

Oh damnit

[Cmdr_earthsnake]

Too late I already got my christmas tree, oh well I guess I should throw it out... wait! your meant to do that on new years.. doh doh doh doh doh :P

Re:I'm so torn

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

Well, we actually can root for it.. if you live far enough inland. I live on the NY/MA border and wouldn't mind the distance to the ocean halved.

Wait a minute...

[bujoojoo]

Forests now cause global warming? Next they'll say that volcanoes cause global cooli... Uh, nevermind...

Re:I'm so torn

[wombatmobile]

We are also rooting for it here in Denver.

and....

[HellYeahAutomaton]

Somewhere ... deep within the hollows of suburbia ... a logging company executive is feeling cautiously optimistic for 2006.

George says...

[farrellj]

"Watch out for that T*R*E*E!"

- George J.

Re:I'm so torn

[SEWilco]

1. Trees in northern latitudes cause warming.
2. Soot and haze cause cooling.
3. Burning trees causes soot and haze.
4. Burn the forest, save the Earth.

This message brought to you by the Prairie Restoration Force.

Solution to global warming

[Stan Vassilev]

Pack heat in magical giant heat bags and then release in space with every space mission, when it occurs.

Sounds good enough for a patent. One day, I'll be a rich guy.