Planting trees is vital, but it won’t stop climate change. We must reduce fossil fuel use.

2019 saw a significant shift in media reporting and dialogue around climate change and biodiversity loss. Several comprehensive and influential studies gave a damning verdict on the current fragile state of the global ecosystems and rising greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change movements such as the School Strike for Climate and Extinction Rebellion went global with millions of people engaging protests. Even scientists urged on their colleagues to join civil disobedience movements.

According to Google, Greta Thunberg was the 7th most searched person in 2019 — she was also the TIME person of the year. Earlier in the last summer, climate change and Greta Thunberg dominated headlines around the world when she left Europe to go to the Americas to attend the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit.

In 2019 summer, at the height of the climate change debate, a scientific study suggested that an additional 900 million hectares — roughly the size of the United States — of land on Earth can undergo reforestation. The research predicted that once these trees mature, they could store over 200 billion tonnes of carbon, which is two-thirds of the total carbon released by humans since the Industrial Revolution. The study proved to be highly influential and was reported by hundreds of…