Read here. (h/t Tom Nelson) Welcome to the wacky world of "consensus" science where anything and everything is tied to global warming. A new study, if interpreted literally, would mean the world could reduce global warming potential if rain forests were reduced in size instead of encouraging their growth in size, which was the original desired outcome.
The key to this study's findings is that a growing forest has increased leaf and twig litter that decomposes into additional CO2 emissions.
Soooooo....if we had left the world pristine and never cut any trees/forests down, the world would be a lot warmer because of all the leaf and twig litter that had decomposed. Ergo, to keep future warming from happening, we need to reduce leaf and twig litter in the rain forests, which dictates the pace of deforestation should accelerate. Got that?
"A new study shows that as climate change enhances tree growth in tropical forests, the resulting increase in litterfall could stimulate soil micro-organisms leading to a release of stored soil carbon..."Most estimates of the carbon sequestration capacity of tropical forests are based on measurements of tree growth. Our study demonstrates that interactions between plants and soil can have a massive impact on carbon cycling. Models of climate change must take these feedbacks into account to predict future atmospheric carbon dioxide levels." The study concludes that a large proportion of the carbon sequestered by greater tree growth in tropical forests could be lost from the soil."
Makes one wonder if this study was funded by some crazed biofuel investors in an attempt to increase needed acreage dedicated to industrial biofuel agriculture, no?
Comments