Since I read Collapse back to 2007 I have been an advocate of both stopping deforestation and reforesting as both are needed to stop soil erosion in a local scale and stop climate change on a global scale.
It seems the Copenhagen climate conference was not a complete failure as the Kyoto Protocol’s successor is due to tackle deforestation – a huge part of greenhouse gases emissions – via the REDD program.
As the New York Times stated it : “ It is likely to be the most concrete thing that comes out of Copenhagen — and it is a very big thing.”
After the Billion Tree Campaign that planted seven billion trees in a few years, the REDD program may soon protect not only forests worldwide but also peat soils, swamps and fields. However, Mongabay notes that not everything is completely bright.
In any case, this is an important step forward on climate change mitigation and sustainable development in poorer nations.
—
To fully understand why forests play a vital role to us all, I would like to quote an article from CleanTechnica:
Each year the Amazon provides about $50 billion worth of utility service. It cleans air. It provides air conditioning. It creates water for agriculture.
(…) To replicate all the services it provides would use so much energy that if we were to build a giant machine to do that work instead of the Amazon, it would take 135 years of power from the largest hydro electric power plant on the planet.
The Amazon really is a giant planetary utility, performing a service that makes possible billions of dollars worth of industrial energy and food production, by releasing 20 billion tonnes of water into the atmosphere every day.
—
As I find it very interesting, this video will conclude this article. Enjoy :