Nature News
Forests in the front line of climate change
Jun 4, 2007, 11:31 GMT
Sydney - A scientific study upheld Australia's argument that financial efforts to curb illegal logging in Indonesia would have a greater impact in slowing climate change than signing up to the Kyoto Protocol.
The protocol would force the country to meet targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.
Australia, which along with the United States has refused to be part of the Kyoto initiative, announced in April that it would put up 200 million Australian dollars (154 million US dollars) to keep tropical tree cover in Indonesia.
'If you can do that, you can reduce greenhouse gas emissions,' Prime Minister John Howard said. Halving Indonesia's rate of deforestation would achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions 10 times greater than those achievable under the Kyoto Protocol rubric, he added.
The science behind that assertion is now available in a ground- breaking paper published in the journal Science co-authored by Pep Canadell from the government's CSIRO research body.
Canadell worked with colleagues in the US, Britain, Brazil and France to show the benefits of keeping forests as carbon sinks. They found forests do not release carbon back into atmosphere as some have suggested.
Canadell estimated deforestation accounts for 20 per cent of the carbon emissions attributed to human activity.
'We have a huge reservoir of carbon - we go there, we cut it down, we burn it, and it goes into the atmosphere,' Canadell said. 'But in addition to this, we make disappear a piece of forest that is taking and cleaning a lot of the carbon in the atmosphere. It's almost a double loss.'
Canadell added: 'If by 2050 we slow deforestation by 50 per cent from current level, with the aim of stopping deforestation when we have 50 per cent of the world's tropical forests remaining, this would save the emissions of 50 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. This 50/50/50 option would avoid the release of the equivalent of six years of global fossil fuel emissions.'
Indonesia is cutting down trees faster than any other country. The felled trees are turned into plywood, pulp or paper. Palm oil plantations or other cash crops take their place.
Canadell argues that Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and other developing countries with big tropical forests could be offered carbon credits to keep them.
Rather than just criticism, there could be reward.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
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If Indonesia is serious about saving it's forests it should think seriously about it's colossal birth rate, it is one of the highest on the planet and they all need somwhere to live?
REAL GEM
You forgot to mention the mini heatwave we had just before that horrible weather you wrote about.
One consequence of global warming is not just a rise in temperatures but wild swings in weather patterns.
Look at the Matterhorn webcams they are having more snow now than they have had all winter but I bet there is someplace that is having it rather hot.
Denying global warming because it is momentarily colder in any part of thje world is vain.It only shows complete inability to understand even the basics of global warming .Nobody ever claimed that temperatures can not lower,hence the word GLOBAL Fact is the average temperature is raising fast .Even NASA acknowledges the urgency of the problem ,except of course the political appointee from the Bush administration leading it .A joint study from the NASA and university of Columbia now alarms public opinion that climate is reaching the tipping point and can spiral out of control .Soon there might be no hospitable planet anymore for us to live on.All because of the greed and refusal for some to cooperate in solving this catastrophic problem.
What frightens me most is the inability of many people to vision a climate spiraling out of control .If average temperature goes up beyond 4 degrees celsius millions will perish in famine .For the people in the USA agriculture will become a major problem as desrtification settles in .Any idea what it means to be hungry all the time without food ?
Nasa administrator Michael Griffin, who was appointed head of the space agency in April 2005, said those who assumed it was a problem also assumed that the state of Earth's climate today was its optimal climate.
His comments were made in a pre-recorded interview broadcast this morning on National Public Radio's (NPR) 'Morning Edition.'
Dr Griffin told the program: 'I have no doubt that a trend of global warming exists. I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with.
'To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth's climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn't change.
'I guess I would ask which human beings - where and when - are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take.'
You do realize the year 1772 was at the last peak of the Little Ice Age and heralded
the extreme winters of the American Revolution. Especially Valley Forge and the Southern
Campaign under Nathanial Green of 1780-1781.
So that is a pretty cold event.
Temperatures were unseasonably
cold across many parts of the UK. Highs ranged between 7 and 10C (45 – 50F). Normal temperatures
would be nearer 17-18C (63–64F) at this time of year.
A high of 7.9C was recorded at Heathrow Airport making it the second coldest May day on record.
Many outdoor events were canceled including one of the country’s biggest carnivals in Luton, which
was expected to attract around 100,000 people.
The cold extended into Scotland where sleet and snow fell across the mountains bringing a good few
centimeters to parts of the Cairngorms.
St Catherine’s Point on the Isle of Wight received 80mm, (just over 3 inches) of rain over the weekend
It is about 0.28%, if water vapor is taken into account-- about 5.53%, if not.
This point is so crucial to the debate over global warming that how water vapor is or isn't factored into an analysis of Earth's greenhouse gases makes the difference between describing a significant human contribution to the greenhouse effect, or a negligible one.
Water vapor constitutes Earth's most significant greenhouse gas, accounting for about 95% of Earth's greenhouse effect (4). Interestingly, many 'facts and figures' regarding global warming completely ignore the powerful effects of water vapor in the greenhouse system, carelessly (perhaps, deliberately) overstating human impacts as much as 20-fold.
Water vapor is 99.999% of natural origin. Other atmospheric greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and miscellaneous other gases (CFC's, etc.), are also mostly of natural origin (except for the latter, which is mostly anthropogenic).
Human activites contribute slightly to greenhouse gas concentrations through farming, manufacturing, power generation, and transportation. However, these emissions are so dwarfed in comparison to emissions from natural sources we can do nothing about, that even the most costly efforts to limit human emissions would have a very small-- perhaps undetectable-- effect on global climate.
it is arrogant to suggest that the earth's climate is for humans sake only.
You are wasting your time explaining things like water vapor here. These people on here are just pop-science folks with closed minds. Everything is global warming here, not because its true or not but because it is the latest thing. It feeds a liberal agenda right now and again we have George Bush to thank for this because if terrorists were attacking these places we could not worry about global warming.
Global temperature: 58.22 °F
Deviation from normal: -0.86 °F
Last update: 6/4/07 14:35:49
WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - June 4, 2007) - Ewire -- 'NASA's top administrator, Michael Griffin, speaking on NPR radio made some refreshingly sensible comments about the present global warming scare,' said Robert Ferguson, Director of the Science and Public Policy Institute. 'Many rationalist scientists agree with him, clearly demonstrating there is no scientific consensus on man-made, catastrophic global warming,' said Ferguson.
Griffin said he doubted global warming is 'a problem we must wrestle with,' and that it is arrogant to believe that today's climate is the best we could have and that 'we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn't change.'
While NASA scientist, James Hansen, was sharply critical of his boss, other scientists from around the world came to Griffin's support.
Said Dr. Walter Starck, an Australian marine scientist, 'Griffin makes an important distinction between the scientific findings of climate change and dramatic predictions of catastrophic consequences accompanied by policy demands. The former can be evaluated by its evidence, but; the latter rest only on assertions and claims to authority. Alternate predictions of benefits from projected changes have been proposed with comparable authority and plausibility. For example, unless one chooses to define the Little Ice Age as 'normal' and 'optimal' the net effect of any warming has only been beneficial and any anthropogenic contribution very small indeed. Dramatic predictions of imminent disaster have a near perfect record of failure. Griffin's note of caution in the escalating concern over climate change deserves sober consideration.
Another Australian, who testified before a Senate panel last year, Professor Robert Carter, observed, 'My main reaction to Michael Griffin is to congratulate him on his clear-sightedness, not to mention his courage in speaking out on such a controversial topic.'
Dr. Tim Ball, a Canadian climatologist, responded: 'Griffin's statement is sensible because it allows time for the testing of the man-made global warming hypothesis to continue as it should.'
page: 1
real gemJun 4th, 2007 - 13:53:51
UK Coldest since 1772 - 29 May 07 – 'We had already suffered the great washout
over the weekend. And yesterday - to complete the misery - came the big chill. 'Arctic
winds swept across the country at speeds of up to 50mph in one of the coldest Whitsun
Bank Holidays since records began in 1772.
'Sleet lashed the Chilterns while hail battered cricket fans at Headingley. Beaches were
deserted as rain continued to pour down across the country. The AA said thousands cut
their long weekends short to battle appalling road conditions.'
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