An inconvenient fact
Despite the anti-forestry scare tactics of celebrity movies, trees are the most powerful concentrators of carbon on Earth
Dr. Patrick Moore is a co-founder of Greenpeace and chairman and chief scientist of Greenspirit Strategies Ltd. in
Vancouver.
Patrick Moore, Special to the Sun
Published: Wednesday, August 29, 2007
It seems like there's a new doomsday documentary every month. But seldom does one receive the coverage that Hollywood
activist Leonardo DiCaprio's latest climate-change rant, The 11th Hour, is getting.
When we're bombarded anew with theatrical images of our earth's ecosystems when the film opens across B.C. this Friday,
I'm concerned that we're losing sight of some indisputable facts.
Here's a key piece of information DiCaprio, collaborator and long-time activist Tzeporah Berman and the leadership of my old
organization Greenpeace are ignoring when it comes to forests and carbon: For British Columbians, living among the largest
area of temperate rainforest in the world, managing our forests will be a key to reducing greenhouse gases.
As a lifelong environmentalist, I say trees can solve many of the world's sustainability challenges. Forestry is the most sustainable
of all the primary industries that provide us with energy and materials. Rather than cutting fewer trees and using less wood, DiCaprio
and Berman ought to promote the growth of more trees and the use of more wood.
Trees are the most powerful concentrators of carbon on Earth. Through photosynthesis, they absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and
store it in their wood, which is nearly 50 per cent carbon by weight. Trees contain about 250 kilograms of carbon per cubic metre.
North Americans are the world's largest per-capita wood consumers and yet our forests cover approximately the same area of land
as they did 100 years ago. According to the United Nations, our forests have expanded nearly 100 million acres over the past decade.
The relationship between trees and greenhouse gases is simple enough on the surface. Trees grow by taking carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere and, through photosynthesis, converting it into sugars. The sugars are then used as energy and materials to build cellulose
and lignin, the main constituents of wood.
There is a misconception that cutting down an old tree will result in a net release of carbon. Yet wooden furniture made in the
Elizabethan era still holds the carbon fixed hundreds of years ago.
Berman, a veteran of the forestry protest movement, should by now have learned that young forests outperform old growth in carbon
sequestration.
Although old trees contain huge amounts of carbon, their rate of sequestration has slowed to a near halt. A young tree, although it
contains little fixed carbon, pulls CO2 from the atmosphere at a much faster rate.
When a tree rots or burns, the carbon contained in the wood is released back to the atmosphere. Since combustion releases carbon,
active forest management -- such as removing dead trees and clearing debris from the forest floor -- will be imperative in reducing
the number and intensity of fires.
The role of forests in the global carbon cycle can be boiled down to these key points:
n Deforestation, primarily in tropical forests, is responsible for about 20 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions. This is occurring
where forests are permanently cleared and converted to agriculture and urban settlement.
Despite the anti-forestry scare tactics of celebrity movies, trees are the most powerful concentrators of carbon on Earth Dr. Patrick
Moore is a co-founder of Greenpeace and chairman and chief scientist of Greenspirit Strategies Ltd. in Vancouver.
http://www.canada.co...8492a462651&p=1
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