Reforestation is one of our best tools to fight the climate crisis. In the tropics, forests have been reported to absorb 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year. A mature tree can absorb about 48 pounds of CO2 per year. In the U.S., our forests store 14% of all annual carbon dioxide emissions, according to the nonprofit American Forests. There is no path to climate-neutral without forests and trees.
Many businesses like Salesforce and Microsoft are funding the planting of trees in wildfire burn scars and agricultural lands. But the stealth-phase startup Undesert is working on a whole new frontier for reforestation.
As you can probably guess from the name, the company is focused on planting trees in deserts, specifically desert shrublands in the Alamogordo region of New Mexico. Nicholas Seet, CEO of Undesert, calls his company “climate triage” — doing something to reduce emissions now while the rest of the world catches up.
But should we be planting trees in the desert?
“There is a current debate about whether drylands are suitable for reforestation for the purpose of global climate mitigation purposes,” said Niall Hanan, professor of dryland ecology in the Plant …
