Trees have gotten a bad rap lately, in our summer of forest conflagration. Bloomberg News reported in July that the greenhouse gases released from Canada’s 2023 wildfires are twice the emissions from every other sector of our economy. The New York Times piled on, with the headline “Forests are no longer our climate friends.” …Trees burn. This is true. But it is a terrible mistake to vilify trees as a culprit in climate change. Trees suck in carbon and emit oxygen. Without trees, we would find it difficult to breathe. The forests of Canada store a large chunk of Earth’s carbon; even the epic carbon released by this summer’s fires is a tiny fraction of that stored in our forests. We want that carbon storage to increase – by adding trees. We also need to protect more intact forests. [to access the full story a Globe and Mail subscription is required]