Deforestation: the real cause of global warming?

[Matsubara]

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2539349.ece

Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming
In the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York. Stopping the loggers is the fastest and cheapest solution to climate change. So why are global leaders turning a blind eye to this crisis?

By Daniel Howden
Published: 14 May 2007
The accelerating destruction of the rainforests that form a precious cooling band around the Earth's equator, is now being recognised as one of the main causes of climate change. Carbon emissions from deforestation far outstrip damage caused by planes and automobiles and factories.

The rampant slashing and burning of tropical forests is second only to the energy sector as a source of greenhouses gases according to report published today by the Oxford-based Global Canopy Programme, an alliance of leading rainforest scientists.

Figures from the GCP, summarising the latest findings from the United Nations, and building on estimates contained in the Stern Report, show 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.

"Tropical forests are the elephant in the living room of climate change," said Andrew Mitchell, the head of the GCP.

Scientists say one days' deforestation is equivalent to the carbon footprint of eight million people flying to New York. Reducing those catastrophic emissions can be achieved most quickly and most cheaply by halting the destruction in Brazil, Indonesia, the Congo and elsewhere.


(see link for more...)

[RC]

1. The real cause is

too damn many people on this planet. All the rest of the problems are merely symptoms.
We have out stripped the resources to support us. The planet will recover, we may not.

[frogcycle]

2. roger that

a completely dispassionate outsider would view humanity the way we view runaway deer populations - or pigeons, or rats. A species run amok, destroying its environment.

It's been going on a long time - there used to be "cedars of Lebanon" but the forests were wiped out to make masts for sailing ships a few thousand years ago. Easter Island was forested, but was clearcut and the population vanished. Humans brought the extinction of many large mammals in the Americas 10,000 years ago. Even back then humans were a problem; then they developed machinery, and it really took off. That same tendency to gobble up everything in sight, obliterate any perceived competitors (think bounties on wolves) and breed like rabbits (hey, how about inventing a religion in which we are ordered to "go forth and multiply") has the rainforests vanishing, the Aral Sea dried up, the Colorado River no longer reaching the ocean, species vanishing daily, and on, and on.

And despite all that, the naysayers continue to insist we could not possibly be doing anything bad.

[rasputin1952]

3. Amazing isn't it...

Always 'somebody else's' or 'something else's' fault...:eyes:

None are so blind as those who refuse to see.

[LWolf]

4. Yes.

How soon do you expect to hear the media, or the world's fearless leaders, take that issue on?

[Richard McBeef]

5. The facts indicate otherwise...

...too damn many people on this planet.

I don't buy this point. Agricultural production has increased faster than population growth in the developed world, yet at the same time, we have as much or more forest acreage here in the US. Practical conservation/clean air and water initiatives have worked and need to be a part of our growth. But they must be a part of that growth, not something that restricts or kills it.

Who determines how many people are too many? More frightening still, what do you do about "too many damn people"?

[ima_sinnic]

6. agircultural production = agribusiness, which relies on fossil fuels

--LOTS of it--for humongous machinery as well as transportation, and TONS of fertilizer inputs. It also converts previously diverse ecosystems into massive monocultures, inviting rampant disease (think Irish potato famine) and loss of natural enemies such as beneficial insects that need diverse plantscapes for breeding and life-cycle requirements, and previously uninhabitable, unagricultural land such as deserts into agroecosystems by massive inputs of water for irrigation.

All of that is UNSUSTAINABLE.

We don't have to "do anything" about "too many people"--the natural system rules and will always work to restore equilibrium. The only humans who will survive massive climate changes and disruptions in growing seasons, soil conservation (TONS of soil being eroded every year as a result of deforestation and lack of natural inputs instead of chemical fertilizers, which do nothing to build real soil), pollination (honeybee die-off is just one aspect of that--how many other pollinators' cycles are being disrupted?), invasive weeds--all of these are simply "adjustments" in the natural cycle of things that will "weed out" those who are unable to adapt to short food supplies and much colder and/or much hotter weather that will also have an effect on crops. Natural selection is not just a "theory."

on edit: another consequence of reduced agricultural resources as a result of climate change, soil erosion, and die-off of pollinators will be increased global strife as people fight over increasingly shrinking good land and also more widespread disease as regions descend into war, poverty, and famine.

[Deja Q]

8. Simple.

Those in power define how many are too many.

They also look at ROI - this is a free market world, you know.

Then ask why our transport systems aren't being retrofitted with light rail, hybrid, and electric cars the way it's happening more quickly (and at lesser costs) to "developing" nations.

If there is a conspiracy, the hints are there beneath our very noses. If there is no conspiracy, ask why we're even importing large quantities of food from other countries. Do we not grow our own food anymore?! (We do; plenty of food, drugs, and other items are US-made. But how much longer will that remain true?)

We don't know.

Gotta ride it out and wait.

But if globalization is about migration rather than expansion, the lack of cleaning controls combined with global warming's eventual melting of ice that in turn will drown Asia anyway... somebody once called it "karma". We may ALL be doomed before our natural corporeal period expires; all 6.5 billion of us. Oh well. It's better to enjoy life than to complain about it. So I'm going to live and be happy.

[Matsubara]

12. Yes, more forest in the developed world...

...where they are being protected, but in the developing world, which is a much larger part of the earth's land area than the developed world, deforestation is proceeding at an alarming rate, and most of those trees are not being replaced.

Overpopulation, although ignored by most since the 80s, is still a serious problem. It can be improved by better education and wider use of birth control, but I don't know if it will be in time...

[Deja Q]

7. Invent an analogue to photosynthesis to compensate for the existing tree loss.

Problem solved.

But I would not advocate deforesting the world - that's just stupid and will cause the loss of indigenous life forms too.

[ima_sinnic]

9. trees do more than simply metabolize CO2 and produce O2

Forests are essential for holding soil and for contributing natural inputs of litter, which decompose to soil and form the basis of a food web ("food chain" is an outdated concept) that begins with detritivores and ultimately extends all the way to clueless humans. They also provide habitat for countless species of animals. Also, forests are essential for climate cycles. Another reason for increasingly strange weather patterns is quite likely the shrinkingness of the Amazon rainforest, which has functioned not unlike the lungs of the earth.

[MrSlayer]

10. It's a major contributor.

The forests play a very important role in keeping the planet livable for many thousands of species and lifeforms, not just humans. We are disturbing the balance of nature so much that we are going to wipe ourselves out one day soon, all in the name of greed.

[GeorgeGist]

11. Their are many causes ...

and all of them are REAL.