Trees and Climate Change

Trees play multiple critical roles in combating climate change. They absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, out of the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Trees provide shade and wind breaks for buildings, which can decrease the amount of fossil fuels burned, and thus the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. They also absorb rain water, which can decrease the potential for flooding in a changed climate.  Using the iTree Design website students will analyze how different trees in their students’ surroundings are combating climate change. Teachers can make the learning meaningful by placing a blue ribbon on the local tree that absorbs the most carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or by planting a tree on campus of the species that students find to absorb the most carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or water from the ground.

• Which tree at your school or local forest does the best to combat climate change?

• Can planting a certain number of trees really be the best solution to combating climate change?

Studens could:

• Find headlines of online articles suggesting that planting a certain number of trees will help combat climate change, while at the same time there are headlines suggesting that this is impossible. Teachers can pose this argument to students to help guide them through an investigation about why the climate is changing, or after students have learned why the climate is changing and need to explore solutions to climate change. 
• Create questions that they have that will help them figure out which side of the argument is correct. Teachers should make sure that these questions get answered throughout the investigation, and that whenever a student has a new question during the investigation, the student writes the question down and adds it to the list.  
• Draw a few trees on the board for a starting model that they can update as new information is learned in the investigation. The final model should clearly show how a tree absorbs carbon out of the atmosphere through photosynthesis, and the impact that has on the climates around the world. 
• Use the iTree Design website to figure out which tree on their school grounds or in a local forest absorbs the most carbon dioxide.

• iTree Design: The iTree Design website that allows you to identify how much carbon dioxide and water certain species of trees absorb at different ages and health conditions.
• Project Learning Tree | Teaching With iTree: Several great resources can be found on this website to help you figure out how to utilize the iTree Design website for this phenomena.
• NASA | Examining the Viability of Planting Trees to Help Mitigate Climate Change: NASA goes very in depth on this website to truly examine both sides of the story for whether or not planting trees is a viable solution to climate change.
• Discover Magazine | We Can’t Just Plant Billions of Trees to Stop Climate Change: This article examines all of the reasons why we can’t plant enough trees to solve climate change.
• The Guardian | Tree Planting Has Mind-blowing Potential to Tackle Climate Crisis: This article emphasizes all of the reasons why planting trees is one of if not the best solution to solving the climate change problem.