You often hear that we need to reduce our carbon emissions from fossil fuels to fight climate change. While that is true, we have another way to reach our goals. It is easier and less expensive to save and regrow tropical trees. According to Nature Climate Change, tropical forest conservation and restoration could make up half of the global warming solution.

Cutting carbon emissions and pulling carbon out of the atmosphere (courtesy of rainforests) would significantly reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. According to Dr. Paul Salaman, “the potential of rainforest conservation to address global warming should be enough to galvanize massive worldwide rainforest conservation efforts.”

Dr. Salaman also said “rainforest conservation is also incredibly economical. One acre of Amazon rainforest in Peru, which stores up to 180 metric tonnes of CO2, can be protected for just a few dollars; the same is true elsewhere in Latin America and Africa…for the cost of …a coffee – each of us could save an area of forest about the size of four football pitches and safely store about 725 metric tonnes of CO2. To put this in perspective, the annual emissions of a typical passenger vehicle in the United States is less than 4.5 metric tonnes of CO2.”

Another reason to conserve the rainforests is for the animals. They provide homes for orangutans, elephants, tigers, and many other species. It is time to start saving and protecting our rainforests. They are the key to our future.