Barking up the wrong tree

If you are concerned about global warning or the fact that you haven’t reached carbon neutrality, you may have been advised to plant a tree. After all, trees help soak up greenhouse gases and clean the air. But just planting any old tree – or many trees of the same type – may actually contribute ...

606353_Pine5.jpg
606353_Pine5.jpg

If you are concerned about global warning or the fact that you haven't reached carbon neutrality, you may have been advised to plant a tree. After all, trees help soak up greenhouse gases and clean the air. But just planting any old tree - or many trees of the same type - may actually contribute to air pollution by putting large amounts of hazardous organic compounds into the atmosphere. 

If you are concerned about global warning or the fact that you haven’t reached carbon neutrality, you may have been advised to plant a tree. After all, trees help soak up greenhouse gases and clean the air. But just planting any old tree – or many trees of the same type – may actually contribute to air pollution by putting large amounts of hazardous organic compounds into the atmosphere. 

The question has led researchers at the State University of New York in Syracuse to look into just what makes an effective urban forest. They’ve found that by planting different types of trees – and they’ve come up with a list of 31 types that are good at sucking up carbon and not guilty of releasing harmful compounds – the efficiency of forests goes up. It seems like a no-brainer, if far from a magic bullet to combat global warming. So, before you take a page out of Coldplay’s book and go off planting 10,000 mango trees to offset your carbon contribution (the band’s trees soon died in the arid Indian soil in which they were planted, by the way), remember that not all trees may contribute to your noble goal.

Carolyn O'Hara is a senior editor at Foreign Policy.

More from Foreign Policy

Keri Russell as Kate Wyler walks by a State Department Seal from a scene in The Diplomat, a new Netflix show about the foreign service.
Keri Russell as Kate Wyler walks by a State Department Seal from a scene in The Diplomat, a new Netflix show about the foreign service.

At Long Last, the Foreign Service Gets the Netflix Treatment

Keri Russell gets Drexel furniture but no Senate confirmation hearing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron speak in the garden of the governor of Guangdong's residence in Guangzhou, China, on April 7.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron speak in the garden of the governor of Guangdong's residence in Guangzhou, China, on April 7.

How Macron Is Blocking EU Strategy on Russia and China

As a strategic consensus emerges in Europe, France is in the way.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin greets U.S. President George W. Bush prior to a meeting of APEC leaders in 2001.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin greets U.S. President George W. Bush prior to a meeting of APEC leaders in 2001.

What the Bush-Obama China Memos Reveal

Newly declassified documents contain important lessons for U.S. China policy.

A girl stands atop a destroyed Russian tank.
A girl stands atop a destroyed Russian tank.

Russia’s Boom Business Goes Bust

Moscow’s arms exports have fallen to levels not seen since the Soviet Union’s collapse.