Reforestation would play big role in preventing climate change

North America's primary forests have a big role in preventing climate change. They need our protection.-------------------------------


OK, already. You're changing light bulbs, sealing up leaks in the attic, looking for a smaller car and trying to drive less. By now, most of us are familiar with the urgent need to take every possible action to burn less oil, use less energy and reduce global warming. But, then there are the forests. What are you doing about the forests?

Forests are a big part of the climate equation. Deforestation produces about 20% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. Industrial disturbances in forests exacerbate global warming. The more the forest is disturbed, the more carbon is released. Fortunately, North Americans have an outstanding opportunity to aid climate stewardship just by managing and protecting our forests.

This complex issue was incompletely addressed under the Kyoto Protocol. Rules for forest emissions and incentives to reduce them are still being negotiated. Forests and climate change are also an ongoing focus for scientists advising the United Nations.

To date, the spotlight has largely been on tropical forests. But northern forests need to be part of the discussion. Findings recently presented at the UN Forum of Forests demonstrate that protecting remaining primary forests in both the north and the tropics is an effective tool in preventing emissions that would otherwise accelerate climatic disruption. North America's forests have a big role in that global equation.

The circumpolar Boreal Forest, including vast swaths of northern Canada and Alaska, is the world's largest forested region. This forest stores more carbon per acre than any other ecosystem, making it the world's largest terrestrial carbon storehouse. Also important is the complex of coniferous forests in the mountains of lower latitudes, especially in the United States.

In the US, much of the coniferous forest is in public ownership and could be set aside, protected immediately in the public interest, by governmental policy. It should be. This would immediately signify to the world that the nation is serious in its approach to the climatic disruption.

In Canada, with its vast Boreal Forest carbon storehouse, the potential is even greater. Rivalling the Amazon Rainforest in size, the Boreal Forest also provides globally-important, irreplaceable reserves of fresh water and habitat for enormous, healthy populations of wildlife, including millions of migratory caribou and billions of migratory birds.

Over 1,500 international scientists, led by Nobel prize-winning authors for the International Panel on Climate Change, have recommended that at least half of Canada's Boreal Forest be protected from any further disturbance.
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I didn't read all 900 plus pages of the ACES bill, but I didn't notice in my reading about it that deforestation in North America, particularly the United States was being addressed in the equation to sequester carbon and that is a big mistake. Just by caring for and reforesting our forests we would sequester enough carbon to go way beyond the 17% by 2020 guideline set by that bill that is way below scientist's recommendations. However, to set aside these public lands to allow the people of America to take part in the solution to this crisis doesn't make $$$$$$$ for those special interests and industries looking to make a pile of money off of this bill. Our forests in America and primarily the Boreal Forest of Alberta that has been ravaged by tarsands needs to be reforested, protected, and cared for. Trees are the natural answer to this crisis. The fact that this Congress will not even address that in a climate bill that is being touted as "historic" only speaks to me of the true motivations behind it. It may sound simple, and it may sound trite, but we need to Plant America.


http://plantamerica.blogspot.com