Author: Daniel Howden
Date of Publication: Monday, 14 May 2007
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/deforestation-the-hidden-cause-of-global-warming-448734.html
Gabriela Garcia Fernandez.
Gabriela Garcia Fernandez.
The Global Canopy Programme, an alliance of rainforest scientists, recognized that the accelerating destruction of the rainforests around the Earth's equator, is one of the main causes of climate change. The GCP showed deforestation accounts for up to 25 per cent of global emissions of heat-trapping gases, while transport and industry account for 14 per cent each; and aviation makes up only 3 per cent of the total. Researches from 2003 proved that two billion tons of CO2 enters the atmosphere every year from deforestation, destruction which amounts to 50 million acres. The remaining standing forest is calculated to contain 1,000 billion tons of carbon, or double what is already in the atmosphere. Scientists believe that putting a price on the carbon these vital forests contain is the only way to slow their destruction.
Reducing those catastrophic emissions can be achieved most quickly and most cheaply by halting the destruction in Brazil, Indonesia, the Congo and elsewhere. Indonesia became the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world last week. Following close behind is Brazil. Neither nation has heavy industry, yet they comfortably outstrip all other countries, except the United States and China. Both countries have tropical forest that is being cut and burned. Smoke stacks visible from space climb into the sky above both countries, while satellite images capture similar destruction from the Congo.
No new technology is needed to reduce deforestation, says the GCP, just the political will and a system of incentives that makes the trees worth more to governments and individuals than the cutting of them. Most people think of forests only in terms of the CO2 they absorb. The rainforests of the Amazon, the Congo basin and Indonesia are thought of as the lungs of the planet. But the destruction of those forests will in the next four years pump more CO2 into the atmosphere than every flight in the history of aviation to at least 2025.
Unfortunately, he problem behind deforestation was not included in the original Kyoto protocols. Many reports agreed that forests offer the "single largest opportunity for cost-effective and immediate reductions of carbon emissions". More than 50 per cent of the life on Earth is in tropical forests, which cover less than 7 per cent of the planet's surface. They generate the bulk of rainfall worldwide, function as a coolind band and act as a thermostat for the Earth. Forests are also home to 1.6 billion of the world's poorest people who rely on them for subsistence. However, forest experts say governments continue to pursue science fiction solutions to the coming climate catastrophe, preferring bio-fuel subsidies, carbon capture schemes and next-generation power stations.
Reducing those catastrophic emissions can be achieved most quickly and most cheaply by halting the destruction in Brazil, Indonesia, the Congo and elsewhere. Indonesia became the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world last week. Following close behind is Brazil. Neither nation has heavy industry, yet they comfortably outstrip all other countries, except the United States and China. Both countries have tropical forest that is being cut and burned. Smoke stacks visible from space climb into the sky above both countries, while satellite images capture similar destruction from the Congo.
No new technology is needed to reduce deforestation, says the GCP, just the political will and a system of incentives that makes the trees worth more to governments and individuals than the cutting of them. Most people think of forests only in terms of the CO2 they absorb. The rainforests of the Amazon, the Congo basin and Indonesia are thought of as the lungs of the planet. But the destruction of those forests will in the next four years pump more CO2 into the atmosphere than every flight in the history of aviation to at least 2025.
Unfortunately, he problem behind deforestation was not included in the original Kyoto protocols. Many reports agreed that forests offer the "single largest opportunity for cost-effective and immediate reductions of carbon emissions". More than 50 per cent of the life on Earth is in tropical forests, which cover less than 7 per cent of the planet's surface. They generate the bulk of rainfall worldwide, function as a coolind band and act as a thermostat for the Earth. Forests are also home to 1.6 billion of the world's poorest people who rely on them for subsistence. However, forest experts say governments continue to pursue science fiction solutions to the coming climate catastrophe, preferring bio-fuel subsidies, carbon capture schemes and next-generation power stations.
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