Professor, I think I've read that mature forests are the best natural mechanism going for removing CO2 from the atmosphere. No other plants can remotely compare, certainly not newly planted seedlings. Correct?
If that's correct, then the mature forests that exist everywhere in the world right now are irreplaceable "assets" in the global warming battle and should be placed under complete, immediate protection for the next century. Developing countries should be paid not to harm a leaf on their branches.
Forests have been under unrelentling assault for 30 years now, mature forests are everywhere in decline. Yet old mature trees may be our greatest allies in fighting global warming.
It's another sign that global warming is really not being taken seriously and that calls to "sacrifice" are just so much lip service.
Posted by euzoius at April 5, 2007 12:44 PMMy understanding of the science is that the ultimate amount of carbon sequestered by growing trees is not that well understood. There is a discussion in the IPCC Third Assessment Report (here) and I imagine that an updated analysis will be released tomorrow. What is clear is that deforestation releases a lot of carbon
The Climate and Vegetation Research Group at Boston University has done some interesting work on the effects of global warming on terrestrial biomass. The northern hemisphere is, in general, greening as a result of elevated CO2 (and presumably changes in precipitation as well). This won't go on forever, of course. A website for that work is here.
Posted by Christina at April 5, 2007 01:40 PMgrow hemp
Posted by Katherine at April 5, 2007 06:23 PMTo this Old Logger's observation, there's no such thing as an "undisturbed" forest - good, bad or indifferent, mankind is a part of the ecocsystem. As a hundred years of mis-guided fire suppresion here in Cascadia has taught us, there's no going back, no pristine, as mankind has always been an interactive part, not always good, not always bad.
Yeah, go hemp. Like energy, consumption isn't to decline, so alternatives must be found.
Posted by Thomas Ware at April 6, 2007 11:41 AM