Posted at 1:00 p.m.
I am far from sharing the vision that Gabriel Arsenault, professor of political science from Moncton, expressed in a text that appeared in The Press December 121, where he questions the advisability of massively planting trees in the context of the fight against global warming.
His goal seems to be to criticize the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau for a lack of leadership in the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs), but there would be many other blames, more relevant, to address to him in this regard. .
There is a broad consensus in the scientific community that trees capture carbon dioxide during most of their growth and that they sequester it until they have begun their natural decomposition process. Mr. Arsenault bases his argument to the contrary on a report from Natural Resources Canada which shows that our forests have been emitting more CO2 for several years.2 than they capture.
The same report specifies, however, that this negative balance is essentially due to the multiplication of fires, devastation caused by insect epidemics and windthrow, that is to say the uprooting of trees most often caused by winds violent.
No less than 1.4 million hectares of forest were burned in Canada in 2018. In 2021, the provisional toll stands at more than 3 million hectares, with Alberta and British Columbia having been the provinces the most experienced. A recent study by the same federal department establishes a link between climate change and extreme wildfires of natural origin in several regions of the globe.
We have broken fire records over the past 10 years because the increase in temperature and the decrease in relative humidity in the atmosphere create a situation conducive to these so-called “natural” disasters, but which are largely attributable to human activity.
The right reflex is not to slow down tree planting, but to speed it up to compensate for these losses and reverse them in the medium and long term, while increasing the protection measures for existing mature forests. These are increasingly coveted by the forest industry in search of timber for export. In this sense, the citizen initiatives that are emerging in some provinces to protect ancient forests are entirely commendable. More protected natural areas are essential to maintaining the quality of life in any community.
We cannot criticize governments for wanting to plant billions of trees, but rather for delaying in fulfilling their promises, as is the case in Canada.
Of the two billion trees Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged to plant in 2019, only 8.5 million have been planted, according to government data obtained last December through an access request to information.
Forest regeneration is of course only part of the solution, or more exactly of the remedy, and on this point, I can only agree with Mr. Arsenault’s conclusion: priority must be given to tackling reducing carbon at source. This objective involves reviewing our economic development model based on the overconsumption and waste of resources.