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- [Narrator] Could 
restoring lost forests

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absorb enough carbon to 
help slow climate change?

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To find out, Tom and a 
team built a computer model

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to estimate the potential.

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- So we collect data 
from all over the planet,

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and that can show 
us there's about

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0.9 billion hectares of land

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outside of urban and 
agricultural land

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where forests might naturally 
be able to regenerate.

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That's a big chunk of land 
that would be able to capture

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a staggering amount of carbon.

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- [Narrator] 
Calculation suggested

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that to capture this carbon,

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there was enough land to 
support an extra trillion trees,

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a seductive idea that made 
headlines around the world.

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- It just went viral 
beyond anything

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I could have been prepared for.

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And I think that 
alliteration, trillion trees,

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was both a blessing and a curse.

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In one way, it captured 
everyone's imagination.

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"Great, we bring 
back a trillion trees

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and we're gonna be flying."

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But the downside was 
everybody thought

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that meant planting trees.

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Somehow it wasn't about the 
forest, it was about the trees,

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and that is where things 
started to go wrong.

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It nearly finished 
all of our careers.

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Companies and governments 
were under a lot of pressure

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to limit their emissions.

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They saw this as a chance

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to just bang a load of 
trees in the ground,

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and then they don't 
need to cut emissions.

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The projects denounced as a 
result of our paper saying,

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"Don't worry, we're 
gonna buy up land

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and we're gonna plant trees."

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- In the rush to grow trees,

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people ignored the 
supporting environment

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that exists in a forest.

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- There are places on the planet

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where biodiversity 
continues to thrive,

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and those places are by and 
large in indigenous homelands.

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Biodiversity is the sum total

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of all of the organisms 
that are here,

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and you think, well, 
why does it matter?

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In a forest which 
is self generating,

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you get all the 
different forms of trees

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and the understory and 
the mosses and the fungi

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and the birds all 
in relationship.

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It's this beautiful web

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that doesn't really exist in 
a monocultural plantation.

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- When Tom's paper 
was published,

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many quite literally couldn't 
see the forest for the trees.

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By planting rows of single 
tree species to capture carbon

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instead of reducing 
carbon emissions.

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- This greenwashing is one 
of the most insidious threats

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to climate change 
and biodiversity.

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And through this paper, 
in some people's minds,

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I become synonymous 
with greenwashing.

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I still regret how I 
handled that paper.

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It's the hardest 
thing to be hated

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by people that you agree with.