Trees also harm. Organic compounds released by trees react with nitrous oxides to ensure that no matter how efficient car exhaust filters are at removing unburnt hydrocarbons, Los Angeles will never free itself from smog.
The same type of compounds emitted from trees tint the atmosphere and give Blue hills and mountains in the Appalachians and eastern Australia their names.

This started with "The rainforest is the lungs of the world".
Jan 26, 2020 at 9:02 AM M Courtney

That is a concept that was impressed on me for O Levels in the late 1970s, and reinforced by David Attenborough series on BBC.

As a Country Bumpkin, I am still a believer in trees around the world helping to balance/regulate/control the excesses of nature, but in the 1970s I did not appreciate the role of Oceans and bodies of freshwater.

"michael hart and M Courtney - spot on.
Jan 26, 2020 at 9:19 AM Mark Hodgson"

Planting trees involves short term expenditure without any financial return for decades. There are no short term gains, for investors, unless they can be made out of Government funded tax deductions and virtue signalling.

Green Blob racketeers can make fortunes out of selling schemes, sometimes the same scheme, multiple times.

"Sir David Attenborough says fixed-term parliaments lead to lack of climate focus"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51252222
Mark Hodgson

"They have been drawn from more than 1,800 people who responded to 30,000 invitations sent out to UK households selected at random and are representative of the UK population in age, gender, ethnicity, education and where they live.
*Members are also representative of the country in terms of how concerned they are about climate change.*
Three of the group said they were not at all concerned, 16 not very concerned, 36 fairly concerned, 54 very concerned, and one did not know, organisers said.
Business, trade union, faith, farming and environmental leaders have given their backing to the citizens' assembly.
The £520,000 scheme has been funded through £120,000 from Parliament's select committees' research budgets and two philanthropic foundations."

The Green Blob have predetermined everything, without evidence or science. It is only fair to conclude that their as yet unpublished conclusions do not represent anything that can be trusted. Parliament's" select Committees can fund this out of "Research Budgets"?

michael hart and M Courtney - spot on.

Elsewhere (well, the usual place):

"Sir David Attenborough says fixed-term parliaments lead to lack of climate focus"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51252222

And an amusing story, but "science & environment? Really?

"The Shetland dog models whose photoshoots can stop traffic"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-51190283

"The global elite promise a trillion trees and equality for all. Don’t hold your breath."

https://www.politico.eu/article/davos-woke-green-climate-sustainability-donald-trump-greta-thunberg-angela-merkel-gender-equality/

Jan 25, 2020 at 8:44 PM | Unregistered CommenterMark Hodgson

I don't mind the idea of a modest and sensible tree-planting program. Replacing lost forests, as long as the costs are kept low enough, would garner a lot of support across a wide spectrum of opinions. I think some reasonable arguments can be made for it, and I also quite like trees.

But most importantly, it could be used to distract them. As a parent might divert a petulant child's attention when flat out refusal to grant their demands only makes the noise louder, it might be the easiest way for the rest of the world to be left to get on with the important things in life. We need to find a way to mitigate the harm they are causing. A cheaper way of letting them think the problem is being addressed seems like an attractive option.

Polar Bears now threatened by obesity.

https://polarbearscience.com/2020/01/12/2019-alaska-aerial-survey-found-the-most-polar-bears-since-2012-dozens-of-fat-healthy-bears/