A tree that is up to 5,484 years old has been found in southern Chile and it is believed to be the world’s oldest tree, as per a new study. According to Jonathan Barichivich, the scientist who led the study, the sample they extracted and other dating methods suggest the tree is up to 5,484 years old.This method tells us that 80% of all possible growth trajectories give us an age of this living tree greater than 5,000 years but there is only a 20% chance that the tree is younger. Barichivich hoped people could “think for a fraction of a second about what it means to live 5,000 years,” and put their lives and the climate crisis into perspective.
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