The Planet Now Has More Trees Than It Did 35 Years Ago
This is good news.<p>You wouldn't know it from reading this article.  The orthodoxy on environmental research and reporting is that everything <i>must</i> be bad news.  Humans are destroying the planet and we're all doomed.  The rotten thing is about this orthodox attitude is that it has created tremendous apathy.  If nothing we humans do can possibly be good and doom is inevitable, why even try?<p>Here we have a great example of nature's self-rectifying mechanisms in action.  Raise global temperatures and CO2 levels and trees grow bigger in more places than before, lowering CO2 levels.  It is a fundamentally good thing to see this in action and we really ought to recognize it as such.  It means there's hope.  If we change a little nature may pitch in too.  i.e. If we can cut down on deforestation in the places where it's the worst we'll be in a situation where a significant number of new trees are growing and soaking up CO2 for several decades.<p>Good environmental news <i>is</i> possible, and it doesn't have to be interpreted as meaning everything is okay and we need not do anything, as many clearly fear.  The "everything is bad" orthodoxy has <i>proven</i> far more crippling.