Grass and Fungi, Carbon Warriors

<p>They&rsquo;re gorgeous, right? Particularly the old ones. Towering majestically into the sky, encanopying our roads, each tree is a self-replicating fractal pattern &mdash; with each leaf a scale model of the branching structure of the tree itself. This is partly why, when he wrote his book&nbsp;<em>Biophilia,&nbsp;</em>Edward O. Wilson argued that trees are the sort of nature that captivates: Their design patterns were laid down long before humans came into existence.</p> <p>The beauty of trees is partly why, whenever we talk about building carbon sinks, we focus on them.</p> <p>Trees are the forms of natural CO2-capture that we can see &mdash; that we admire. The idea of reforesting the planet makes immediate sense. As does fiercely protecting the old-growth we&rsquo;ve got left. Indeed, protecting those existing old trees is particularly crucial: There&rsquo;s an increasing amount of science that suggests really old trees are tentpoles of the flora and fauna around them, hubs in the ecological network of a forest. Younger trees don&rsquo;t fulfill those central roles.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/grass-and-fungi-carbon-warriors-81ee3724577b"><strong>Website</strong></a></p>