Climate Policy

[kandrathe]

How, without changing those facts, are we going to dramatically increase global forests, or transform them with bioengineering?

Good point. I've read other places where scientists are calling on first world nations to resolve the causes of deforestation as a bigger first step in reducing atmospheric CO2. I still think we can do more than one thing at a time, though. We should spend effort *now* to begin building enough nuclear plants to replace all our current electricity generation, work with S. American, Asian and African nations to preserve or reverse deforestation, work worldwide to limit or decrease human population over the next 100 years, and develop sustainable agriculture sufficient to support the population that we have.

Presumably, it would be true that deforestation is highly correlated with CO2 growth, for fairly obvious reasons. One is causal: forests held carbon in plants that is now in the atmosphere. Another is simply coincidence: we are more able to exploit forest resources because we have fuel-burning technology and a high population, both of which create emissions.

I found a paper on the topic by Woodwell in 1978. Also, it reduces the capability of the land to sequester additional carbon. There are least four effects on the local climate that I can think of; 1) burning the vegetation releases its carbon, 2) soil erosion further releasing GHG's, 3) reduced capacity of carbon sequestration, and 4) lower albedo resulting in a warmer micro climate. Not to mention the other ecological impacts such as the reducing lifespans of watersheds, habitat destruction and the loss of biodiversity.