Forests sucking up planet’s fuel emissions
By Margaret Munro, Vancouver Sun
The world’s forests gobble up so much carbon they are protecting the planet from the worst impacts of humans’ staggering fossil fuel emissions.
An international study has concluded forests suck up a third of the carbon pumped into the atmosphere each year through the burning of oil, gas and coal: “That one third taken up by the forests would otherwise be in the atmosphere,” said Werner Kurz of the Canadian Forest Service, co-author of the report published Thursday in the journal Science.
The oceans suck up another 20 percent of the emissions, which means “we have basically been getting a 50 per discount on all our fossil fuel emissions,” said Kurz.
The report is the most comprehensive assessment yet of the global forest “sink” and shows trees from the tropics to the boreal play a huge role in controlling the global carbon budget by sucking up vast amounts of carbon from the air and locking it away in wood and soil.
It says that the forests have been a major carbon sink since 1990, and shows the changing dynamics of the world’s trees.
It says fire and insects hit this country’s forests so hard between 1990 and 2007 that the carbon sink in Canada’s managed forest was “reduced by half”. On the other side of the Atlantic, the carbon sinks grew in fast-growing new forests in Russia and northern Europe.
Trees sucking up carbon dioxide. Now that is news. What are they going to tell us next, trees produce oxygen.
Your tax dollars at work.
Dear Where is the Turnip Truck:
Apparently, this is real news for you – but that is exactly the case: forests are in fact the major buffer against global warming.
In CO2, the carbon is the building material of tress, and oxygen is what’s emitted from trees, that’s why they are so valued by those in the concrete jungles in the form of their parks, landscaping for shade, or the need for a trip to Tahoe/Yosemite for some fresh air.
You will be happy to know that the best work in global sustainability is in the area of deforestation – to the extent that we don’t keep destroying the world’s forests (burning them, or in human over-development, we begin to get the climate back in balance.
Noting this article came from Vancouver, I will refer to my work with the BC Ministry of Forestry in corroboration of what I’ve just shared with you and others.
For the above reasons, China has already discovered that a tree is worth three X’s more standing than if cut down. . . now if only all countries could get rid of their political contradictions . . .
Dear Where is the Turnip Truck:
Apparently, this is real news for you – but that is exactly the case: forests are in fact the major buffer against global warming.
In CO2, the carbon is the building material of trees, and oxygen is what’s emitted from trees, that’s why they are so valued by those in the concrete jungles in the form of their parks, landscaping for shade, or the need for a trip to Tahoe/Yosemite for some fresh air.
You will be happy to know that the best work in global sustainability is in the area of deforestation – to the extent that we don’t keep destroying the world’s forests (burning them, or in human over-development, we begin to get the climate back in balance.
Noting this article came from Vancouver, I will refer to my work with the BC Ministry of Forestry in corroboration of what I’ve just shared with you and others.
For the above reasons, China has already discovered that a tree is worth three X’s more standing than if cut down. . . now if only all countries could get rid of their political contradictions . . .
Dear Satori,
Apparently the dripping sarcasm got by you. You should have known by the fourth grade that plants use carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.
Though the loss of forests is irresponsible the huge population of the earth will have a much greater impact on living standards as 80-85 percent of the earth population is third world and they want a much higher standard of living.
The problem is there is not enough to go around so maybe you want to guess whose hide it is coming from.