Alvarado, T. Michael Anderson, Sally Archibald,
William J. Bond, Thomas W. Boutton, Nina
Buchmann, Elise Buisson, Josep G. Canadell,
Michele de Sá Dechoum, Milton H. Diaz-Toribio,
Giselda Durigan, John J. Ewel, G. Wilson Fernandes,
Alessandra Fidelis, Forrest Fleischman, Stephen
P. Good, Daniel M. Griffith, Julia-Maria Hermann,
William A. Hoffmann, Soizig Le Stradic, Caroline
E. R. Lehmann, Gregory Mahy, Ashish N. Nerlekar,
Jesse B. Nippert, Reed F. Noss, Colin P. Osborne,
Gerhard E. Overbeck, Catherine L. Parr, Juli G.
Pausas, R. Toby Pennington, Michael P. Perring,
Francis E. Putz, Jayashree Ratnam, Mahesh
Sankaran, Isabel B. Schmidt, Christine B. Schmitt,
Fernando A. O. Silveira, A. Carla Staver, Nicola
Stevens, Christopher Still, Caroline A. E.
Strömberg, Vicky M. Temperton, J. Morgan Varner,
Nicholas P. Zaloumis
Bastin et al.'s estimate (Reports, 5 July
2019, p. 76) that tree planting for climate
change mitigation could sequester 205
gigatonnes of carbon is approximately
five times too large. Their analysis inflated
soil organic carbon gains, failed to safeguard against warming from trees at high
latitudes and elevations, and considered
afforestation of savannas, grasslands, and
shrublands to be restoration.
Full text: dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aay7976