To Sustainablog : ” It turns out we’ve been underestimating the benefits created by forests in the last case: a new study published in Science shows that “Forests play an even greater role in Earth’s climate system than previously known.”
” According to an AP report on the study, “Wooded areas across the planet soak up fully a third of the fossil fuels released into the atmosphere each year, some 2.4 billion [tons] of carbon…”
” Reforested land soaks up an additional 1.6 tons. But, of course, deforestation is still a massive trend, and it costs us 2.9 billion tons of carbon emissions every year. “
The article goes on :
Study co-author Josep Canadell summed up the findings by claiming “”If you were to stop deforestation tomorrow, the world’s established and regrowing forests would remove half of fossil fuel emissions.” (my emphasis)
I guess this makes it a priority to stop deforestation and putting reforestation at the top of the to-do-list for tropical countries…