Are we over-reacting to climate change? It is probably going to benefit forestry anyway

Authors: Hamish Levack
Publication: New Zealand Journal of Forestry, Volume N.Z.J.For. 2023, Issue N.Z.J.For. 68(1) 2023, pp 22-26, May 2023
Publisher: New Zealand Institute of Forestry

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Abstract: It may well be that we are over-reacting to worries about climate change, in the same way that we overdramatised anxiety about ‘peak oil’. Graham Lawton (2023), Bjorn Lomborg (2020) and others argue that human capacity for adaptability indicate that climate change is unlikely to devastate society. The recent promise of various technical developments, including controlled nuclear fusion, are indicative of this. Science, economics and continued activism will probably drive us to come out of the climate crisis in better shape than now. Climate change will benefit forestry regardless. Our native trees have adapted to major climate change in the past, and even if future changes do not suit radiata pine, other species are available that would thrive in warmer and/or dryer conditions.

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