WORLD
12 | Tuesday, July 30, 2019 CHINA DAILY
1 trillion trees
would fight
climate change
Estimated cost is $300 billion, the
cheapest solution for global warming
By ALFRED ROMANN
and DAVID HO in Hong Kong
For China Daily
One of the most effective tools the
world has against climate change is
trees. And immediate action is in
need to protect trees and plant new
ones as China has been doing, said
analysts.
Trees absorb enormous amounts
of greenhouse gases. The potential
impact of more trees on climate
change has been brought to the fore
after a new study suggested that
planting 1 trillion trees around the
world would be “the cheapest climate
change solution”.
Nonetheless, any serious effort to
address climate change would also
require significant curbs on emis-
sions, experts emphasize.
Thomas Crowther is a professor
at ETH Zurich University and the
lead researcher of the study pub-
lished on July 5 in the journal Sci-
ence. He estimated that planting or
restoring 1 trillion trees would cost
the world about $300 billion, about
half of the combined sales of Apple,
Microsoft and Amazon last year. It
would be equivalent to about 2.
percent of a single year of China’s
economic output.
Over a few decades, that many
trees could extract 750 billion metric
tons of carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere — about as much as
people have generated over the past
quarter-century. The study includes
potential sites for tree planting, and
estimates the area needed would be
roughly equal to the landmass of the
United States.
The United Nation’s Intergovern-
mental Panel on Climate Change
also estimated that planting trees
on 1 billion hectares of land (rough-
ly the same amount as the total sug-
gested in the study) would prevent
average temperatures from rising
by 1.5 C by 2050.
“Trees are humans’ best defense
against climate change,” Mei Ng,
chairperson of green group Friends
of the Earth (HK), told China Daily.
“Tree planting is undeniably the
simplest and most effective solution
to mitigate ecological risks and cli-
mate threats.” Friends of the Earth
is an international network of non-
governmental organizations.
Ng said a campaign to plant all
those trees would require a three-
pronged approach.
The first prong would be to pro-
tect and enhance existing forests
and green space.
The second prong would be to
plant new trees while regenerating
forests and green space. This could
be done through “regenerative
development” to replenish any
resources used.
The third prong is public partici-
pation. “We need more knowledge-
able and well-trained manpower to
ensure we plant the right trees, at
the right place, at the right time,
and maintained by the right peo-
ple,” said Ng.Innovative efforts
Already, of course, there are many
innovative efforts underway
around the world, and particularly
in China and Asia, for planting trees
and protecting existing ones.
For instance, Friends of the Earth
(HK) has undertaken a project to
plant 230,000 trees at the head of
the Dongjiang River in Jiangxi
province, East China.
That project pales in comparison
with a 6.66 million hectares of new
forest that China set out to plant
last year by deploying 60,000 sol-
diers to plant trees.
Between 2016 and 2020, China
plans to increase the land area cov-
ered by woodlands from 21.7 per-
cent to 23 percent. Between 1990
and 2015, China added almost half a
billion square kilometers of forest
cover, according to the World Bank.
Still, there are those who question
the global push to plant more trees
— on the basis of time available.
“The climate crisis represents an
emergency and there is no time to
wait for this tree-growing program
to come to fruition,” Harald Heub-
aum, a climate policy expert at the
University of London and
co-founder of sustainable finance
data initiative SUFINDA C.I.C., said.
“It’s actually more important to
protect mature forests which store
huge amounts of carbon today from
getting logged than to rely on plant-
ing new forests which will take a
long time to grow,” Heubaum said.
Ultimately, planting all those
trees would not, by itself, be enough
to reverse climate change. Even the
authors of the study point out that
such a push would have to go hand
in hand with efforts to slash emis-
sions.The authors are freelance
journalists for China Daily.Trump taps John Ratcliffe to
replace Coats as US spy chief
WASHINGTON — US President
Donald Trump said on Sunday he
would nominate Representative
John Ratcliffe, a Texas Republican
who strongly defended him at a
recent congressional hearing, to
replace Dan Coats as the spy chief
of the United States.
Coats, the current US director of
national intelligence, has clashed
with Trump over assessments
involving Russia and Iran. He is
scheduled to step down on Aug 15,
the president said as he announced
his decision on Twitter.
“John will lead and inspire great-
ness for the Country he loves,”
Trump said, thanking Coats “for his
great service to our Country” and
saying an acting director will be
named shortly.
The post of director of national
intelligence, created after the Sept
11, 2001 attacks, oversees the 17 US
civilian and military intelligence
agencies, including the Central
Intelligence Agency.
Ratcliffe, a member of the House
of Representatives intelligence and
judiciary committees, defended
Trump during former Special
Counsel Robert Mueller’s testimo-
ny on Wednesday about his two-
year investigation of the alleged
Russian interference in the 2016
presidential election and possible
obstruction of justice by Trump.
Ratcliffe also accused Mueller ofcriticized Trump’s choice, saying:
“It’s clear that Representative Rat-
cliffe was selected because he
exhibited blind loyalty to President
Trump with his demagogic ques-
tioning of ... Mueller.
“If Senate Republicans elevate
such a partisan player to a position
that requires intelligence expertise
and nonpartisanship, it would be a
big mistake,” Schumer said.
In his letter of resignation, seen
by Reuters, Coats said he had
agreed in February to a request by
Trump that he stay on and believed
the US intelligence community has
the capabilities needed to protect
the country, including “to address
threats against our elections”.
“The Intelligence Community is
stronger than ever, and increasing-
ly well prepared to meet new chal-
lenges and opportunities. As a
result, I now believe it is time for
me to move on to the next chapter
of my life,” he wrote.
Coats will join a long list of senior
officials to leave the administration
since Trump took office in January
2017, either through resignation or
firing. The list includes a defense
secretary, attorney-general, two
national security advisers, a secre-
tary of state, an FBI director, numer-
ous top White House officials and
assorted other Cabinet members.REUTERSexceeding his
authority in the
report’s extensive
discussion of
potential obstruc-
tion of justice by
Trump after the
special counsel
decided not to
draw a conclu-
sion on whether
Trump committed a crime.
The congressman agreed that
Trump was not above the law, but
said the president should not be
“below the law” either.
A former US attorney and may-
or of Heath, Texas, a Dallas sub-
urb, Ratcliffe has also worked at a
law firm run by former attorney-
general John Ashcroft, a Missouri
conservative.
Ratcliffe joined Congress in 2015
and some Republican Party lead-
ers had pushed for him to be
named US attorney general last
year after Trump ousted Jeff Ses-
sions from that role.
The congressman helped lead a
congressional investigation into
2016 Democratic presidential
nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of
private e-mail servers and former
FBI director James Comey’s deci-
sion not to recommend criminal
charges against her.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer, a New York Democrat,John
RatcliffeCalifornia shooting kills 3, injures 15
SACRAMENTO, California — A
gunman killed at least three people
and wounded about 15 at a Califor-
nia food festival on Sunday before
being shot dead by police, and
police were hunting for a second
person they believed was involved
in the killing.
Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee
said the gunman was armed with a
rifle and sneaked in through a fence
that borders a parking lot next to a
creek. He appeared to randomly
target people when he opened fire
just after 5:30 pm on Sunday, the
conclusion of the three-day festival
that attracts more than 100,
people to the city known as the Gar-
lic Capital of the World.
Police responded within a min-
ute, engaged the suspect and killed
him, Smithee said.
A second person, “was involved
in some way, we just don’t know in
what way”, Smithee said on Sunday.
“We have no idea of a motive,” he
added.
Smithee called the scene at the
festival a “nightmare you hope you
never have to live”.
A 6-year-old boy was one among
those killed, his father said. “My
son had his whole life to live and he
was only 6,” the father of Stephen
Romero said. “That’s all I can say.”
The wounded were taken to mul-
tiple hospitals, and their conditions
ranged from fair to critical, with
some in surgery Sunday night. At
least five were treated and released.
In a tweet, California Governor
Gavin Newsom called the blood-shed “nothing short of horrific”
and expressed appreciation for the
police response. US President
Donald Trump tweeted before
authorities confirmed the gunman
was dead and urged people to “be
careful and safe!”
The Gilroy Garlic Festival features
food, cooking contests and music.
It’s a decades-old staple in the agri-
cultural city of 50,000 about 176
kilometers southeast of San Francis-
co, and normally a sea of tranquility
for families. Security is tight: Festi-
valgoers pass through metal detect-
ors and their bags are searched.
On Sunday, the band TinMan
was starting an encore with the
song We’re an American Band
when the shooting started.Singer Jack van Breen said he
saw a man wearing a green shirt
and grayish handkerchief around
his neck fire into the food area with
what looked like an assault rifle.
Van Breen and other members of
the band dove under the stage.
Their audience began scream-
ing and running, and the five
members of TinMan and others
dove under the stage.
Van Breen’s bandmate, Vlad
Malinovsky of Walnut Creek, Cali-
fornia, said he heard a lot of shots
and then it stopped. Later, police
officers came by and told the band
members and others hiding with
them to come out.AGENCIESPolice officers escort people from Christmas Hill Park following a
deadly shooting during the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California,
on Sunday.NOAH BERGER / ASSOCIATED PRESSReport: No-deal Brexit
could cripple economy
By JONATHAN POWELL in London
[email protected]
A new report from the United
Kingdom’s Institute for Govern-
ment think tank warns of the
immense pressure on the economy
in the case of a no-deal exit from the
European Union.
The report outlines just how
uncertain the future would be, indi-
cating that every governmental
issue other than Brexit would be
overshadowed.
In its report, the institute predict-
ed that the union of the UK would
come under “unprecedented pres-
sure” in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has
unveiled a Brexit Cabinet commit-
tee tasked with handling the UK’s
preparations for a no-deal exit from
the EU — considered the govern-
ment’s “No 1 priority”.
The prime minister told his Cabi-
net the new group will meet daily
and direct operations from the Cabi-
net Office Briefing Rooms, typically
used by ministers for emergency
responses.
“No-deal is a step into the
unknown: the prime minister’s sec-
ond 100 days will be even more
unpredictable than his first,” the
report said, adding that the EU is
unlikely to agree to negotiate any
“side deals” to soften the impact.
“Rather than ‘turbocharging’ the
economy, as Johnson has suggested,
the government is more likely to be
occupied with providing money and
support to businesses and industries
that have not prepared or are the
worst affected by a no-deal Brexit —
as well as dealing with UK citizens in
the EU, and EU citizens here,” it said.
Dominic Raab, the new British
foreign secretary, confirmed that
the government had been reorga-
nized with the objective of gearing
up for no-deal. He told the BBC that
ministers had “set up the structures
to turbocharge our preparations”
and the EU had to offer some
changes or the UK would walk away.
In a shift of tone from the business
community, Carolyn Fairbairn,
director-general of the Confedera-
tion of British Industry, called in an
article in The Times for a “new spirit
of pragmatism and flexibility”.
“Now is the time to shift to an
emergency footing,” Fairbairn said.
“While it’s not possible to seal our
economy from all the damage the
floodwaters of no-deal will cause, we
can lay down the sandbags and pro-
tect as much we can.”A man tries to catch locusts while standing on a rooftop as they swarm over the Houthi rebel-held
Yemeni capital Sanaa on Sunday. MOHAMMED HUWAIS / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSEFluttering pest Briefly
NIGERIA
More than 65 killed
in extremist attack
Suspected Boko Haram extrem-
ists killed more than 65 people in
an attack on villagers leaving a
funeral in northeastern Nigeria,
state television reported on Sun-
day. It was the deadliest extremist
attack against civilians in the
region this year. There was no
immediate claim of responsibili-
ty, but the Boko Haram group
and rival Islamic State in West
Africa splinter group have often
carried out attacks in the area.
Muhammad Bulama, council
chairman of the Nganzai local
government area, said that 11 oth-
er people were wounded during
the attack at midday on Saturday.
He called it a reprisal after villag-
ers and civilian self-defense for-
ces fought off a Boko Haram
ambush in the area two weeks
ago, killing 11 extremists.JAPAN
Govt to launch cargo
rocket in September
Japan will launch a rocket
equipped with an unmanned car-
go vessel to the International
Space Station in September, the
Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency, or JAXA, said on Mon-
day. The rocket will deliver about
5.4 tons of supplies to the space
station, including food, water,
batteries and tools needed for
experiments, the agency said.
The rocket will be launched on
Sept 11 from the Tanegashima
Space Center in Japan’s south-
western prefecture of Kagoshi-
ma, according to the JAXA.FRANCE
NGO files lawsuit
over lead risks
A French environmental group
said on Monday that it had filed a
lawsuit accusing officials of fail-
ing to move quickly to contain the
risks of lead contamination after
the fire that ravaged the Notre-
Dame Cathedral in Paris last
April. Hundreds of tons of lead in
the church’s roof and steeple
melted during the blaze, releasing
toxic particles that settled on
streets and buildings in sur-
rounding neighborhoods.
Authorities have insisted that any
contamination poses no danger.
But last week, city officials indefi-
nitely shut two schools near the
Gothic landmark after tests
revealed high levels of lead pollu-
tion on a shared playground.GERMANY
Boy dies after being
pushed onto tracks
An 8-year-old boy was run over
by a train and killed at Frank-
furt’s main station on Monday
after a man pushed him and his
mother onto the tracks, German
police said. The accident hap-
pened when a high-speed ICE
train was pulling into the station,
one of Germany’s busiest. The
mother was able to escape but the
boy was hit and run over by the
train and suffered fatal injuries.
The suspect then apparently tried
unsuccessfully to push another
person onto the track, police said.
The 40-year-old suspect fled the
scene with passersby in pursuit
and was arrested near the station.
He was being questioned and
there was no immediate informa-
tion on his possible motive.INDIA
‘Definitely weird’:
man bites snake
An Indian man who was bitten by
a snake got his revenge on the rep-
tile by biting it back and killing it,
the man’s father said on Monday.
The man, Raj Kumar, was relaxing
at home on Sunday when a snake
slithered into his house in the
northern state of Uttar Pradesh
and bit him, said his father. “So, in
turn, he bit it and chewed it into
pieces,” said the father. The man’s
family took him to hospital where
media said his condition was criti-
cal. The snake that bit him was
reported to have been a rat snake,
which experts regard as usually
not venomous. “This is definitely
weird,” said Raj Kumar’s doctor,
N.P. Singh. “I’ve seen people com-
ing in with snakebites, but never
somebody who bit a snake and
then brought it with him in a bag.”AGENCIES—XINHUA