Climavores: The magic of trees

The vast majority of habitable land on our planet is either agriculture or forests. So when cropland and grazing land expands, forests shrink. This is a problem because forests soak up about a quarter of the carbon dioxide we emit.

Mike and Tamar talk a lot on the show about ways to make more food with less land. Why? Because doing that helps stop the deforestation that’s transferring carbon from trees to the atmosphere. In the current climate emergency, reducing emissions isn’t enough. We need negative emissions, and trees are the best technology we’ve got.

But fixing the world’s deforestation problems, and its food and climate problems, is more complicated than just planting more trees. In this episode, Mike and Tamar answer a listener question about the negative carbon footprint of fruit and nut trees. Then they dig in on everything from agroforestry and using forests as carbon offsets to burning trees for energy and national and international forest policy.

Have a question about food and climate change for Mike and Tamar? Leave a message on the Climavores hotline at (508) 377-3449. Or email us at [email protected]. We might feature your question on a future episode.

Climavores is a production of Post Script Media.

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