Grass and Fungi, Carbon Warriors
<p>They’re gorgeous, right? Particularly the old ones. Towering majestically into the sky, encanopying our roads, each tree is a self-replicating fractal pattern — with each leaf a scale model of the branching structure of the tree itself. This is partly why, when he wrote his book <em>Biophilia, </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 — that we admire. The idea of reforesting the planet makes immediate sense. As does fiercely protecting the old-growth we’ve got left. Indeed, protecting those existing old trees is particularly crucial: There’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’t fulfill those central roles.</p>
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