As a resident of the Houston area, I am abundantly familiar with the idea of an urban heat island. The difference between a hot day inside the 610 loop and one 50 miles north is quite significant.
I moved from what is effectively the middle of the world's largest parking lot to the middle of a forest and I feel like I've transported myself 1000 miles instead of 50.
I've also developed a strong sense that the forest seems to have some kind of influence over the weather patterns. Not a strong or active one, but it definitely seems like a thing when you're watching Doppler radar.
[1] - https://science.nasa.gov/earth/climate-change/co2-is-making-...
Trees seem to be—unsurprisingly—specialist organisms in the art of maximizing local hydrological features. They help create wetter environments so more trees can live there, and things can get a little more wet still, for more trees, then more water, and so on.
The research I’ve read is mostly along the lines of “we’ve observed these really interesting patterns and we suspect these are the underlying mechanisms”, but as I recall, proving the cause and effect of such large scale phenomenons isn’t trivial. I’m also not someone who researches this stuff, so my take on it is essentially irrelevant. The bottom line is: lots of evidence and research supports your observation, and it’s an extremely interesting field of research. I think it’s the key to making life better for a lot of life on the planet.
I'm convinced this is a very strong effect. The forest definitely protected my home from some nasty windstorms we've had. Out toward the lake where there is less coverage, essentially everyone was knocked off the grid for a whole day while I was unaffected - Despite having my power being delivered by similar overhead lines that follow a very narrow clearing through the middle of the forest. You'd think it would be a shooting gallery but it's the opposite thing. Isolated trees seem way more lethal to grid infrastructure.
1. How Trees Bring Water: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY8ds4BiG1A
2. Amazon Seeds Its Own Rain: https://www.science.org/content/article/amazon-seeds-its-own...
I now see that u/steve_adams posted pretty much the same point. I wonder how I was taught this 25 years ago in high school, with local graphs for evidence, and it still isn't scientific consensus. Super local weather models aren't a thing? (This is in jest, they obviously are a thing. Perhaps it's harder than I imagine.)
Like if we discovered spitting at a housefire would slow it down more than expected, it's still not preventing it from burning to the ground. It's just going to allow some asshat to say "See? Let's defund the fire brigade."
In any case it's certainly not spitting at a fire.
I also don’t see anyone wanting to defund other efforts because trees make a difference. We may see local improvements, but I doubt we’d see global improvements such that anyone would think we’re home free. I could be wrong.
I see this as more of a quality of life improvement that could help make the inevitable bigger fight more bearable.
Where would these enormous fast-growing trees get their hefty nutrient requirements from?
morsch•2h ago
Does planting trees really help cool the planet?
Forests offset warming more than thought, but not enough
jopicornell•2h ago
vixen99•1h ago
dr_dshiv•1h ago
pjerem•59m ago
Don’t get me wrong : we may or may not have to do this one day but it can only be a temporary solution in a too late transition scenario. It’s not a solution on top of our current fossil based economy else that would just be a time bomb.