Forest and Soil Carbon
Is Important, but Does Not Offset Fossil Fuel Emissions
 |
| Not the solution, though still a good idea |
From
ScienceDaily.com
Leading
world climate change experts have thrown cold water on the idea that planting
trees can offset carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels.
Professor
Brendan Mackey of Griffith University Climate Change Response Program is the
lead author of an international study involving researchers from Australia and
the U.K. Their findings are reported in "Untangling the confusion around
land carbon science and climate change mitigation policy," published in
the scientific journal Nature Climate Change.
The
findings highlight the urgent need for policy-makers worldwide to re-think the
issue as many decision-makers, national and internationally, assume that fossil
fuel emissions can be offset through sequestering carbon by planting trees and
other land management practices.
"There
is a danger in believing that land carbon sinks can solve the problem of
atmospheric carbon emissions because this legitimises the ongoing use of fossil
fuels," Professor Mackey said.
The
study found that protecting natural forests avoids emissions that would
otherwise result from logging and land clearing while also conserving biodiversity.
Restoring degraded ecosystems or planting new forests helps store some of the
carbon dioxide that was emitted from past land use activities.
"These
land management actions should be rewarded as they are an important part of the
solution," Professor Mackay said.
"However,
no amount of reafforestation or growing of new trees will ultimately off-set
continuing CO2 emissions due to environmental constraints on plant growth and
the large amounts of remaining fossil fuel reserves.
"Unfortunately
there is no option but to cut fossil fuel emissions deeply as about a third of
the CO2 stays in the atmosphere for 2 to 20 millennia."
Story Source:
The
above story is reprinted from materials provided by Griffith University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further
information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
1. Brendan Mackey, I. Colin Prentice, Will Steffen,
Joanna I. House, David Lindenmayer, Heather Keith, Sandra Berry.Untangling
the confusion around land carbon science and climate change mitigation policy. Nature
Climate Change, 2013; 3 (6): 552 DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1804
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Griffith University (2013, May 30). Land-based carbon offsets:
False hope? Forest and soil carbon is important, but does not offset fossil
fuel emissions. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 30, 2013, from
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130530095020.htm