Restoring the earth’s damaged temperature regulation is the fastest way out of the climate crisis. cooling the planet with plants

Abstract

Reversal of global warming is accepted as an urgent necessity. Atmospheric CO2 concentration is widely used as a proxy and predictive indicator for global warming. Scientific calculation of the cooling efficiency of carbon sequestration options provides a rational basis for optimising climate investment. Based on evapotranspiration data and average rainfall over the Amazon Basin, we determine the cooling power of latent heat transport over the tropical rainforest. A healthy rainforest acts as a heat pump, cooling the Earth’s surface and releasing heat into space. Because of the heat pump, the cooling engendered by evapotranspiration and subsequent cloud-forming is two orders of magnitude greater than the cooling brought about by carbon sequestration in forming biomass. In rainforests situated far inland, the levels of rainfall, evapotranspiration, and latent heat release during cloud formation remain as high, or even higher, than near those near the coast. Whether the coastal forests attract ocean clouds through a biological pump mechanism, or are nourished by on-shore winds, the net result is the amplification of the Amazon's heat pump effect across millions of square kilometres and, therefore, deep into the interior of South-America.