7. My colleagues at #NationalGeographic pulled out all of the stops to make this #climatechange issue something truly educational and beautiful. There is so much in there to unpack.

See our entire #forest #journalism package online here:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/issue/may-2022

5. And yet — AND YET — we also are not accounting for this when using forests as #carbonoffsets.

A multibillion-dollar industry has cropped up allowing polluters to pay to "offset" their carbon emissions by protecting or growing trees.

But what happens as those trees face drought, fire and insects? Well, our exclusive story showed that the #California agency that oversees the world's biggest offset program was not coming even close to accounting for those losses.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/forests-as-carbon-offsets-climate-change-has-other-plans

4. It's happening everywhere.

In 5 yrs #drought and insects killed more #spruce across #Europe than anytime in modern history.

In #Siberia, #fires burned 21 million acres in 2021—4x more than usual. Some forests are now grasslands.

In 2 years, up to 19% of all California sequoias—some alive since the reign of Julius Caesar—died in fires.

How is this happening? Heat and drought is sucking moisture from plants, pushing them past thresholds they've never experienced. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/graphics/an-illustrated-guide-to-how-heat-and-drought-are-killing-trees

3. For example, Camille Stevens-Rumann, a #forest #ecologist, examined 1,485 sites from 52 fires in Colorado, Idaho, Montana + Washington.

Nearly 1/3 that burned since the yr 2000 aren’t coming back.

“And by ‘not recovering,’ I mean not a single tree—not one,” she said.

And here's the thing: Mass #tree deaths can shift forests that have survived since the last ice age to entirely new states.

And yet #IPCC models still can't accurately predict how often or fast that may happen.