Globally, forest restoration is seen as an urgent need. Reduction in global concentrations of C02, production of clean water, and the provisioning of other essential ecosystem services all depend on healthy forest cover. Forest losses are contributing to rapid decline in global biodiversity and to the ongoing climate crisis. Solutions are required to increase tree cover to reduce these negative effects on earth’s systems and biota, as well as human well being.
The issue
Recently, a team of authors published a paper in the scientific journal Science on the global tree-planting potential (Bastin et al. 2019). The authors argue that enormous gains can be made in carbon sequestration and mitigating global change simply through planting trees. Using a complex spatial model, they identified opportunities to increase global forest canopy cover by 0.9 billion hectares. At the same time, the Government of Canada has committed to planting 2 billion trees. Despite these optimistic predictions regarding the global tree-planting potential, many researchers do not think that the report produced by Bastin et al. (2019) is accurate and overestimates the space available for planting trees. Others have suggested that their calculations are not sufficiently nuanced regarding where trees can be planted to produce the purported benefits.
The report
In this report, students will clearly summarize this issue and provide analysis of the perspectives presented in Bastin et al. (2019) and a critique of that article. Students will select a single critique and evaluate the relative merits of the initial article and the critique. You will provide an informed synthesis and opinion based on the readings below and additional supplemental information (a minimum of two additional academic articles or opinion pieces). Students are encouraged to connect their report to other ideas, readings, and content presented in the course. In summarizing the issue and in making your assessments, be sure to base your ideas on evidence, rather than sentiment.
In terms of organization, a reasonable approach would be to first summarize the Bastin et al. (2019) article. This summary should include the broad issue it addresses as well as the specific contributions of the article. Next, you would similarly summarize the critique that you selected. Finally, you will provide a synthesis of these two previous sections where you weigh the relative merits of the original article and the critique and provide an informed opinion on the issue.
In terms of organization, a reasonable approach would be to first summarize the Bastin et al. (2019) article. This summary should include the broad issue it addresses as well as the specific contributions of the article. Next, you would similarly summarize the critique that you selected. Finally, you will provide a synthesis of these two previous sections where you weigh the relative merits of the original article and the critique and provide an informed opinion on the issue.