Giving Compass' Take:

• Gabriel Popkin and Quanta report that a growing body of research suggests that models of the warming world have left out the crucial ingredient of vegetation: trees. 

• What measures can we take to support the positive effects of trees and vegetation?

• Here's an article about urban tree growth.

When Abigail Swann started her career in the mid-2000s, she was one of just a handful of scientists exploring a potentially radical notion: that the green plants living on Earth’s surface could have a major influence on the planet’s climate. For decades, most atmospheric scientists had focused their weather and climate models on wind, rain, and other physical phenomena.

But with powerful computer models that can simulate how plants move water, carbon dioxide, and other chemicals between ground and air, Swann has found that vegetation can control weather patterns across huge distances. The destruction or expansion of forests on one continent might boost rainfall or cause a drought halfway around the world.

Read the full article on how trees can affect climate change by Gabriel Popkin and Quanta at The Atlantic.