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Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2539349.ece
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.
No new technology is needed, says the GCP, just the political will and
a system of enforcement and incentives that makes the trees worth more
to governments and individuals standing than felled. "The focus on
technological fixes for the emissions of rich nations while giving no
incentive to poorer nations to stop burning the standing forest means
we are putting the cart before the horse," said Mr Mitchell.
Most people think of forests only in terms of the CO2 they absorb. The
rainforests of the Amazon, the Congo basin and Indonesia are thought
of as the lungs of the planet. But the destruction of those forests
will in the next four years alone, in the words of Sir Nicholas Stern,
pump more CO2 into the atmosphere than every flight in the history of
aviation to at least 2025.
Indonesia became the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the
world last week. Following close behind is Brazil. Neither nation has
heavy industry on a comparable scale with the EU, India or Russia and
yet they comfortably outstrip all other countries, except the United
States and China.
What both countries do have in common is tropical forest that is being
cut and burned with staggering swiftness. Smoke stacks visible from
space climb into the sky above both countries, while satellite images
capture similar destruction from the Congo basin, across the
Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and the
Republic of Congo.
According to the latest audited figures from 2003, two billion tons of
CO2 enters the atmosphere every year from deforestation. That
destruction amounts to 50 million acres - or an area the size of
England, Wales and Scotland felled annually.
The remaining standing forest is calculated to contain 1,000 billion
tons of carbon, or double what is already in the atmosphere.
As the GCP's report concludes: "If we lose forests, we lose the fight
against climate change."
Standing forest was not included in the original Kyoto protocols and
stands outside the carbon markets that the report from the
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) pointed to this month as
the best hope for halting catastrophic warming.
The landmark Stern Report last year, and the influential McKinsey
Report in January agreed that forests offer the "single largest
opportunity for cost-effective and immediate reductions of carbon
emissions".
International demand has driven intensive agriculture, logging and
ranching that has proved an inexorable force for deforestation;
conservation has been no match for commerce. The leading rainforest
scientists are now calling for the immediate inclusion of standing
forests in internationally regulated carbon markets that could provide
cash incentives to halt this disastrous process.
Forestry experts and policy makers have been meeting in Bonn, Germany,
this week to try to put deforestation on top of the agenda for the UN
climate summit in Bali, Indonesia, this year. Papua New Guinea, among
the world's poorest nations, last year declared it would have no
choice but to continue deforestation unless it was given financial
incentives to do otherwise.
Richer nations already recognise the value of uncultivated land. The
EU offers
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2539349.ece
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.
No new technology is needed, says the GCP, just the political will and
a system of enforcement and incentives that makes the trees worth more
to governments and individuals standing than felled. "The focus on
technological fixes for the emissions of rich nations while giving no
incentive to poorer nations to stop burning the standing forest means
we are putting the cart before the horse," said Mr Mitchell.
Most people think of forests only in terms of the CO2 they absorb. The
rainforests of the Amazon, the Congo basin and Indonesia are thought
of as the lungs of the planet. But the destruction of those forests
will in the next four years alone, in the words of Sir Nicholas Stern,
pump more CO2 into the atmosphere than every flight in the history of
aviation to at least 2025.
Indonesia became the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the
world last week. Following close behind is Brazil. Neither nation has
heavy industry on a comparable scale with the EU, India or Russia and
yet they comfortably outstrip all other countries, except the United
States and China.
What both countries do have in common is tropical forest that is being
cut and burned with staggering swiftness. Smoke stacks visible from
space climb into the sky above both countries, while satellite images
capture similar destruction from the Congo basin, across the
Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and the
Republic of Congo.
According to the latest audited figures from 2003, two billion tons of
CO2 enters the atmosphere every year from deforestation. That
destruction amounts to 50 million acres - or an area the size of
England, Wales and Scotland felled annually.
The remaining standing forest is calculated to contain 1,000 billion
tons of carbon, or double what is already in the atmosphere.
As the GCP's report concludes: "If we lose forests, we lose the fight
against climate change."
Standing forest was not included in the original Kyoto protocols and
stands outside the carbon markets that the report from the
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) pointed to this month as
the best hope for halting catastrophic warming.
The landmark Stern Report last year, and the influential McKinsey
Report in January agreed that forests offer the "single largest
opportunity for cost-effective and immediate reductions of carbon
emissions".
International demand has driven intensive agriculture, logging and
ranching that has proved an inexorable force for deforestation;
conservation has been no match for commerce. The leading rainforest
scientists are now calling for the immediate inclusion of standing
forests in internationally regulated carbon markets that could provide
cash incentives to halt this disastrous process.
Forestry experts and policy makers have been meeting in Bonn, Germany,
this week to try to put deforestation on top of the agenda for the UN
climate summit in Bali, Indonesia, this year. Papua New Guinea, among
the world's poorest nations, last year declared it would have no
choice but to continue deforestation unless it was given financial
incentives to do otherwise.
Richer nations already recognise the value of uncultivated land. The
EU offers
