Planting forests may worsen climate change rather than mitigate it, according to two new studies by British researchers published in the journal Nature. One of the studies suggests that as temperatures rise, forests are likely to emit more carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air, adding to the greenhouse gases that are warming the atmosphere. A second study indicates that planting forests in cold regions could do more harm than good because bare snow-covered ground would reflect heat while darker tree cover would absorb it. These findings could prove controversial at an upcoming meeting in the Hague, Netherlands, where international negotiators will try to agree on ways to implement the Kyoto climate change treaty. The U.S. has been arguing that it should be able to meet a good deal of its treaty commitment by planting trees to absorb CO2. Other new research from scientists at Britain’s University of East Anglia predicts that some countries will warm up more than twice as much as others over the next century. The nations likely to be hit the hardest are among those that produce the smallest quantities of greenhouse gases and are the least to blame for climate change, including Afghanistan, Iran, and a number of countries in West Africa.
