If We Plant 1 Trillion Trees Can We Stop Climate Change?
Videos
Grades6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12Biology
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Provided by Be Smart
What it is
- This video from Be Smart explains the important role that trees play in capturing carbon and halting climate change.
- Students will learn about tree-planting activists, the importance of protecting existing forests, and the potential for using synthetic biology to help trees sequester even more carbon.
Teaching tips
Positives
- The video does a good job of explaining why we will need to reduce our carbon emissions while also protecting all the existing trees and replanting as many trees as possible.
- There are great animations and images to help support the material.
Prerequisites
- This video contains advertisements.
Differentiation & Implementation
- Biology classes can discuss why RuBisCo has not evolved to be more efficient like other molecular enzymes. Students could debate whether scientists should try to manipulate RuBisCo so that it is more productive.
- Science classes or environmental clubs can organize a tree-planting day for the community and use this interactive resource from the Nature Conservancy to see which neighborhoods would benefit most from having more trees.
- Other resources on this topic include this video about natural solutions to climate change, this table of solutions from Project Drawdown, this lesson about climate solutions, and this Vox video on how humans disrupted the natural carbon cycle.
From the scientist review
This PBS video highlights an important aspect of climate science policy. Trees are often touted as the only solution to climate change and, unfortunately, the math does not work out on this one; we do not have enough space for trees to compensate for the total amount of carbon emissions we currently put into the atmosphere. This resource is recommended for teaching.
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