The oldest living things matter to the world in ways nobody understood a few decades ago.
A slew of scientific discoveries shows why we should protect not just 1,000-year-old trees but also 200-year-old whales, 400-year-old fish and 10,000-year-old sea sponges. Many old plants and animals don’t just degenerate over time but acquire size, strength, experience and traits that younger generations depend on. Some ancient organisms can benefit humans by helping us understand aging or even providing anti-aging or anti-cancer compounds.
Ancient trees already benefit us by capturing and storing carbon. While all trees sequester carbon that would otherwise go into the atmosphere, the latest scientific accounting shows that older trees do most of the carbon storage, said William Keeton, a forest ecologist at the University of Vermont.
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