July saw some of the hottest temperatures on record for the UK, with a day and night temperature average of 16.3C (The Guardian, 2014).
This of course, was good news for many tourist destinations and supermarkets who profited from the increase demands from customers for BBQ food, cold drinks and ice creams.
Many scientists argue that heatwaves are likely become more frequent in the future. The cause of this year's heatwave is unknown, but thought to relate to a Typhoon which occurred in the Northwest Pacific Ocean.
The storm, had a ripple affect on the Pacific and Atlantic jet streams, causing the jet stream over the Atlantic to move far north of Europe, thus allowing hot weather from the Gulf to come through and dominate weather systems. (BBC Weather, 2014).
With this in mind, it is important that the UK puts in long-term measures to help reduce global temperatures and offset our ever-growing carbon emissions.
Why woodland benefits our climate
The maintenance and protection of our woodland is one step in the right direction. Woods are able to help reduce our greenhouse emissions in two ways. Firstly, through photosynthesis, all plants remove carbon dixoide from the atmosphere through their growth . Secondly, plants are able to store carbon emissions in their stems, branches, leaves and soil beneath their roots. Releasing any carbon back into the atmosphere once they die. (also known as carbon sequestation).
The amount of carbon a woodland can store varies, depending on plant species, age (young saplings taking up more carbon dioxide than mature trees) and management. For instance, a report conducted by The Forestry Commission found that annually confier forests are able to sequester 14 tonnes of carbon dioxide per hectare. Broadleaf and other unproductive woods sequester less, with an average of 1.4 tonnes of carbon being removed from the atmosphere per hectare per year.
At current UK forests and woodland remove roughly 10 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere every year (Foresty Commission, 2008). In 2012 the total UK greenhouse emissions were estimated to be around 541 million tonnes (Co2E). Looking at these two statistics it could be argued that planting a few million extra trees would not substantially offset the UK's current growing greenhouse emissions.
Nontheless, planting new trees will still have a significant effect on both removing carbon emissions from the atmosphere and acting as a carbon sink.
Reducing our emissions is important. Our ever growing demand for energy and consumption of energy-using products is causing more green house emissions to be produced.
Theses gases are becoming trapped in our atmosphere, unable to escape they continue to push global temperatures up around the world. Scientists link such temperature rises to an increase in extreme weather events such as the heatwave experienced in the UK this summer.
Mini-fact: Remember: heatwaves are relative depending on the average seasonal temperature of a country.
What is being done?
The UK government has pledged that it will invest £6m into woodland creation over this year and next. This funding is expected to create over 2,000 hectares of new woodland.
However, despite this investment, this sum will still fall short of the goverment's own target of creating 5,000 hectares of new woodland per annum, thus increasing UK woodland cover from 10 to 12% (The Guardian, 2014).
Trees are currently facing more threats then ever. Climate change is impacting on the growth and the adapability of certain species, pests and diseases such as Ash Dieback are still prevalant. As yet, it is unknown how many Ash trees have been lost to the disease.
In short, greater protection for current stock and the prioritisation of planting new trees is paramount if we are to effectively reduce our emissions in the UK and support our forests and wildlife as climatic changes occur over the century.
Please follow the link to The Woodland Trust website to find more information on why planting trees is essential
No comments:
Post a Comment