Most of the world's old-growth forests actively absorb more carbon dioxide than they release into the atmosphere, making them effective carbon sinks, according to a new study in the journal Nature. The new research, which relies on data from over 500 forests around the world, refutes the commonly held assertion that old-growth forests are merely carbon neutral, absorbing only as much carbon as they release. Instead, the study found, forests between 15 and 800 years old typically not only act as active carbon sinks, but collectively act as a storehouse for up to 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide -- some 10 percent of the world's total net CO2 uptake. "The absolute amount of carbon stored in these forests is significant," said forest-science professor Beverly Law. And because they are active carbon absorbers as well as large carbon reservoirs, destroying them is doubly stupid climate-wise (and dumber still if you factor in their conservation value and unique ecology). "If you have an old forest on the ground, it's probably better to leave it there than to cut it," Law said.
source: Associated Press, Agence France-Presse
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Comments
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Wolverine Posted 2:26 am
11 Sep 2008
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BlackBear Posted 4:22 am
11 Sep 2008
On the one hand I can see how this is another weapon to use to support efforts to protect these forests, on the other I think that it helps to reinforce the idea that if a living thing is not useful to humans then it is expendable.
Perhaps this wasn't the intent of the author, but we need to be careful of our language.
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sycamore Posted 2:56 am
12 Sep 2008
Dam the ignorance full speed ahead!
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Wolverine Posted 9:01 am
12 Sep 2008
Instead of worshiping science as a god to be obeyed, why not use some common sense, wisdom, and value judgments? Science is a mere tool and is only good for discerning discrete facts, not for making decisions.
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sycamore Posted 1:38 pm
12 Sep 2008
Science does not take sides. Science presents facts. Facts can not be changed they can only be lied about. How the logging industry may have used the study if the results had been different is not a good reason to remain ignorant. Only a few hundred years ago we thought that the Earth was flat and that the Sun revolved around the Earth. Science is just another tool in our tool box. Science has given us knowledge that we can use to improve ourselves. The way we have used that knowledge is where the fault lies, not with the science. This constant bashing of science shows a complete lack of understanding of the role that science plays in the Human equation. Making science the scrape goat for Humanity's poor social performance is a misrepresentation of the facts. Your fight is with the politicians not the scientists.
Knowledge will set you free.
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Wolverine Posted 3:58 am
13 Sep 2008
Western science is totally anthropocentric and myopically reductionist in its thinking, with the limited exceptions of wildlife & marine biology and ecology. And even those disciplines have been used occasionally to cause harm, such as capturing wild animals and putting "tags" on them for studies.
You erroneously conflate opposition to worship of science due to the problems I cited with rejection of facts due to religious superstitions. My objections to the use of science have nothing to do with the latter.
The result of human worship of science is a dying planet. Humans are grossly overpopulated, with humans and their unnatural agriculture and other infrastructures covering the vast majority of the land mass of the Earth, which has been possible because of science & technology: Every inch of land, air, and water is polluted with unnatural human emissions, humans have caused and are causing the sixth great extinction, humans have destroyed and are still destroying ecosystems, humans, humans are acidifying the oceans by unnatural emissions of CO2 which will result in the oceans devolving into what they were 200 million years ago, and human air pollution is resulting in global climate change. All of this has either been caused by use of science or greatly exacerbated by it.
As another poster here (George Mobius) has pointed out, the root of the problem is that human intellect is out of control while human wisdom has been completely retarded. Those of you who worship intellect and its resulting science clearly don't understand this ("this is not as sexy as the procedure you recommended, 'common sense, wisdom, and value judgments', but it is far more accurate"), but allowing the intellect instead of wisdom to guide human actions is like driving a car by flooring the gas pedal without steering it or using the brake. I agree that knowledge in the hands of an adequately wise person or group of people is a good thing, but too much knowledge in the hands of fools is a recipe for disaster, like the one I described above.
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