As time passes, it seems that many of the things we “know” turn out to be wrong. Case in point:
Planting trees may create deserts
While this isn’t uniformly true, it seems that trees can actually worsen water woes in some instances. Of course, this isn’t really news; I’ve heard greenskeepers at golf courses say for years that they wouldn’t have to water as much if it wasn’t for all the trees us golfers love and love to hate.
The good thing is that eventually, good information gets out there. The bad news is that this sort of thing tends to make people suspicious of all scientific pronouncements. As an example, how many people that smoke still believe it isn’t that dangerous?