New Study: Loss Of Undisturbed Tropical Forests Produces 6X The Carbon Emissions First Estimated

[hatrack]

Oops!!

Losing undisturbed tropical forests is more devastating for the planet than previously thought, according to new research published in the journal Science Advances. “Our results revealed that continued destruction of intact tropical forests is a ticking time bomb for carbon emissions,” lead author Sean Maxwell, from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Queensland, Australia, said in a statement. “There is an urgent need to safeguard these landscapes because they play an indispensable role in stabilizing the climate.”

There were 549 million hectares (1.36 billion acres) of intact tropical forests in 2013, an area half the size of the U.S. Each of these patches of forest remains free of large-scale human interference observable by satellites and are at least 50,000 hectares (123,550 acres) in size. Though intact forests constitute only about 20 percent of all tropical forests, they lock away as much as 40 percent of above-the-ground carbon stored in tropical forests.

EDIT

The researchers assessed the long term impact, through 2050, of the loss of 7.2 percent of intact tropical forests between 2000 and 2013. They found that the carbon footprint, direct and indirect, was more than six times greater than earlier estimates had suggested. When only emissions generated directly by forest clearing are taken into account, the carbon footprint is pegged at 338 million metric tons. The new paper revises this to nearly 2.12 billion metric tons. By comparison, forests in the U.S. sequester 236 million metric tons of carbon every year.

One of the crucial differences between the two estimations is the inclusion of carbon storage benefits that are relinquished when these forests are destroyed. “Intact tropical forests appear to be a net carbon sink, assume that this sink persists until 2050 and therefore account for this forgone carbon sequestration,” Yadvinder Malhi, a professor of ecosystem science at the University of Oxford and co-author of the paper, told Mongabay. “Conventional approaches just look at the immediate carbon stock loss.” These earlier estimates also failed to capture the impacts of degradation due to selective logging, forest edge effects, and wildlife loss. Initial logging in previously undisturbed forests opens the way for further incursions and selective removal of the biggest, tallest trees from the forest, which also diminishes carbon sequestration potential.


EDIT

https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/carbon-emissions-from-loss-of-intact-tropical-forest-a-ticking-time-bomb/

[Bayard]

1. The human species is not going to survive in current form

Unfortunately, we will take down most other species with us.

Was just reading how tRump has directed the EPA to roll back coal dust regulations on old coal-fired plants that Obama put into place. He is a one-man wrecking machine.