In 2019, ecologist Thomas Crowther sparked a global tree-planting craze to offset carbon emissions.

But now the former chief scientific adviser for the United Nation’s Trillion Trees Campaign has had a change of heart, Wired reports, pleading with environmental leaders to bring their mass tree planting to a halt.

Taking the stand at this year’s UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai, Crowther spelled out the overlooked drawbacks of mass tree planting, such as stifling biodiversity and not being as effective carbon capturers as once believed.

Most insidiously of all, he warned that tree planting is used “as an excuse to avoid cutting emissions,” as quoted by Wired.

See Also:

The Telegraph: Islamism is rampant in French schools – Analysis

“If no one had ever said, ‘Plant a trillion trees,’ I think we’d have been in a lot better space,” he added. “But maybe there wouldn’t have been so much noise and attention on nature, so that all the very responsible scientists who are here could correct it and turn it into something that is good.”

Continue here: Futurism