Forests help planet much more than previously thought: Study

It's old knowledge that forests are important. But oftentimes, trees and forests are only viewed as carbon absorbing entities in policymaking circles. But a new study has shed light on how forests are doing even more for the planet than we think.

Climate Change is a real threat to humankind. Average temperature rise of just a few degrees may result in increase in sea levels and spell doom for dozens of cities situated on the coasts across the world.

Forests have been seen to be instrumental in keeping global temperature in check.

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This study was carried out by researchers from the US and Colombia. The researchers found that forests help the planet stay cooler by at least half a degree.

Moreover, they found that there were some forest that contributed more in this aspect than others. The study is first to pinpoint non-carbon dioxide benefits of different forests.

Forests in the tropics, like those in Brazil, Guatemala, Chad, Cameroon and Indonesia had a cooling effect of more than one degree.

As per the research, forest cooling is because of variety of biophysical effects like the physical aspects of thr trees (like wood, density and leaves) as opposed to biochemical factors like Carbon.