Trees Are Good, so it's Bad that they're Dying

One stabilization wedge comes from trees - specifically, stopping deforestation and replanting forests on a huge scale. Why? First, trees are awesome; they provide shade (which can prevent cities from becoming heat islands, the result of which is higher temperatures and smog - ever been to Los Angeles?), their roots take up water that can stop flooding and save soil for the forests instead of washing it into rivers, and they just plain look great.

Most importantly, though, forests soak up carbon dioxide like air (hm). After all, that's what makes coal, and makes it such a good energy source - all that carbon that ancient forests took up has been pressed into little chunks of fuel.

So forests are good - that much is beyond debate. In the case of tropical rainforests, saving them is a tricky problem: people in tropical nations who burn rainforests are doing it to make fields, so they can grow something and get by.

But in a nation like the United States? We don't have an excuse.

That's why it's such a bad thing that they're dying off because of the warmer climate. In the end, it doesn't really matter why they're dying off, though. The important fact is that we need more forests if we're going to reach our survival goal, and we need forests to be increasing, expanding, and soaking up more of that carbon that we've put into the air.

Because, really, trees are awesome.