What Ballooning Carbon Emissions Will Do to Trees

Many forecasts for climate change assume that tropical forests will continue to soak up carbon dioxide as the world warms. What if they don’t?

Apart from the experts, few people realize that climate change could be worse. Every year, trees, shrubs, and every other kind of plant absorb 9 billion tons of CO₂—one quarter of what we let loose from our tailpipes and smokestacks—and help slow the gas’s accumulation in the atmosphere. If not for the world’s photosynthesizers, the concentration of CO₂ in the air, along with Earth’s temperature, would be rising much faster than it already is.

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