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- Title
A GROWING NEED: INCREASING AGRICULTURAL AND URBAN FORESTATION TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE.
- Authors
Robbins, Rebecca
- Abstract
Centuries of deforestation and reliance on carbon dioxide-emitting technologies have created a growing climate change crisis in the United States and across the globe. Since colonial times, the U.S. has lost approximately 74% of its forest cover. This dramatic loss of carbonabsorbing forest cover significantly contributes to global climate change but tends to receive far less policy attention than strategies focused on curbing carbon dioxide emissions. This Article argues that far more aggressive and innovative forestation policies are warranted across the country and proposes multiple potential policy approaches to increasing the nation's forest cover. After describing America's history of deforestation, this Article highlights several benefits of trees and some basic obstacles governments tend to encounter when seeking to increase tree planting and maintenance. The Article then examines existing federal, state, and local policies aimed at incentivizing reforestation and forest conservation, explaining why these approaches are not nearly aggressive enough to drive optimal levels of treerelated investment. This Article ultimately advocates for bold and innovative new policies at the federal government level, including expanded federal tax incentives and amendments to Farm Bill programs designed to increase farmer participation in agroforestry. The Article also describes specific ways for cities to better leverage the power of trees to improve citizens' health and well-being while also helping to slow the pace of climate change.
- Subjects
UNITED States; DEFORESTATION; CLIMATE change; CARBON dioxide mitigation; TREE planting; AGROFORESTRY
- Publication
Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, 2021, Vol 22, Issue 2, p69
- ISSN
1936-4253
- Publication type
Article