The heat wave hit this summer, the climate anomaly set new high-temperature records around the world, and the earth lacks the shelter of trees. Some scholars have raised the importance of reforestation. But the question is, can we solve the global warming crisis by planting trees?
New York, NY (Merxwire) – United Nations estimates that nearly 13 million hectares of forest are deforested globally every year, an area the size of Greece or Nicaragua. The massive loss of woodlands makes climate change and wildfires more uncontrollable. Some scientists have proposed that planting trees is one of the important ways to slow down global warming.
Professor Thomas Crowther, a climate expert at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, believes that the carbon accumulation potential brought about by forest regeneration, the center of the trunk, is equivalent to a sponge, which can absorb excess carbon dioxide in the air. The study estimates that a single tree can store up to 22 tons of carbon dioxide, and planting 1 billion trees globally could eliminate nearly 200 billion tons of carbon from the air, equivalent to two-thirds of anthropogenic warming emissions.
Trees are good teammates against global warming, but artificial planting is not as fast as machines. Fortunately, with the help of technological progress, efficiency can be significantly improved. Some industry players have taken a fancy to the light and fast-moving characteristics of drones and developed the use of drones to plant trees. By 2021, drones have produced more than 300,000 seed installations in northern Canada, to plant 1 billion trees by 2028.
The most significant advantage of drones replacing artificial afforestation is speed. Only two technicians are on the team, and the drone team is dispatched to conduct land surveys. The planted seed devices are sown from the air. Each device contains three pre-germinated seeds, mycorrhiza, and fertilizer, which can continue to grow after landing in the soil. Compared with traditional planting methods, such a seeding device uses less water. Trees can be planted faster and more economically, especially after rain; 80% of the seeds can germinate and grow into a tree. Currently, drones can produce more than 10,000 trees a day.
Technological tree planting technology saves time and effort, and drones can also monitor vegetation effects and forest conditions after tree planting. However, the biggest challenge with this new technology is battery life, which is currently limited to 20 minutes at a time, and not all seeds will eventually grow into trees. Drone reforestation programs may not keep pace with chainsaw deforestation, but at least they provide a new weapon for forest restoration. With the help of drones, forest restoration on earth can be completed faster.