Asked about climate change in the context of the massive US heat wave, Speaker McCarthy had one thing to say: plant a trillion trees!
As Speaker Kevin McCarthy visited a natural gas drilling site in northeast Ohio to promote House Republicans’ plan to sharply increase domestic production of energy from fossil fuels last month, the signs of rising global temperatures could not be ignored. Smoke from Canadian wildfires hung in the air.
When the speaker was asked about climate change and forest fires, he was ready with a response: Plant a trillion trees.
OK, certainly makes for a good soundbite, but has anyone on the Republican side of things given any details? Where are these trees planted? Who pays for planting and maintenance? (China's Gobi desert reforestation efforts seem to have had mixed results, partially due to a plant-first, neglect-later mentality). How do you keep them safe from wildfires? And how do you not displace food crops?
Just to quote one extra illuminating detail from the NBC article:
Planting one trillion trees would also require a massive amount of space — roughly the size of the continental United States.
So, aside from whether it is a good idea or not, it's not something easily done. Now that it seems to be their answer to climate change, have Republicans detailed anything about this trillion trees, besides talking up lumber industry benefits?
Note: I am not asking for criticism of this proposal, merely the details of how Republicans propose to implement it.
p.s. The NBC article linked to Reuters coverage of McCarthy which in turn linked to an article in Nature from a Swiss team of researchers about those Trillion Trees. That link is dead, but here's another citation on that research (again I am not asking about debunking of said proposal by other researchers, only about Republican statements of how they propose to act upon it).