The Nation - News from Sept. 20, 1988

Environmental scientists told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee there is one low-cost, easily achievable way for the nation to immediately address the threat of global warming--plant more trees. Researchers appearing before the committee said a sustained federal effort to expand forests would help cut levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Scientists believe increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other industrial gases are raising surface temperatures by trapping heat that previously radiated out into space--the same effect that warms a greenhouse. Trees absorb carbon dioxide during photosynthesis.