Although most of the
focus on climate change
has centered
on the warming effects
of fossil fuels beginning
with the fairly
recent industrial era,
new research highlights
the start of global warming
thousands of years ago
when forests were
cleared to create room
for livestock
and other agriculture.
These changes are
evident in the ice cores
of Greenland
and Antarctica,
which show increases
in carbon dioxide levels
related to the burning and
decay of cleared forests
and meadowlands.
For the study, researchers
from Carnegie
Institution's Department
of Global Ecology
in California, USA and
from the Max Planck
Institute for Meteorology
in Germany used a model
of global land coverage
beginning
around 800 AD.
To determine how
reforestation might affect
atmospheric
carbon dioxide levels,
they focused on
four times in history
when human populations
decreased due to
either conflict or disease,
with agricultural fields
thus being abandoned.
These periods
of minimized human
activity were found
to create a cooling effect
as the forests were
naturally restored
and resumed absorption
of CO2 from
the atmosphere.
Lead author Dr. Julia
Pongratz explained
the modern implication
of such reforestation
on planetary cooling
as she stated, “Today
about a quarter of the net
primary production on
the Earth's land surface
is used by humans
in some way, mostly
through agriculture…
Based on the knowledge
we have gained from
the past, we are now
in a position to make
land-use decisions that
will diminish our impact
on climate
and the carbon cycle.”
Many thanks,
Dr. Pongratz and colleagues,
for your work in
revealing the profoundly
beneficial effects
of reforestation in
mitigating climate change.
Let us do our utmost
to minimize destructive
tree losses by halting
livestock-raising
and other unsustainable
agricultural practices
for the protection
of our planet.
In a video message
presented at
a June 2009 conference
with dignitaries
in Mexico,
Supreme Master Ching Hai
addressed the importance
of conserving the world's
vital forests as well as a way
that this could be done.
Supreme Master Ching Hai : We have to
ban deforestation.
And we have to plant
more trees, of course.
Wherever there's erosion
or empty land
we have to plant trees.
Deforestation
is also largely driven
by meat production.
With the United Nations
estimating that
deforestation accounts for
approximately 20% of all
greenhouse gas emissions,
nearly all deforestation
itself is related
to meat production.
Eighty percent
of cleared Amazon forest
is designated
as a cattle grazing area
to prepare the animals
for slaughter, and
the remainder is planted
as soy crops used also
largely for animal feed.
So to stop animal
products is to protect
our precious forests,
the lungs of our Earth,
and the crucial factor
for our survival.
http://x-journals.com/2011/war-plague-no-match-for-deforestation-in-driving-co2-buildup/http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0120-hance_mongols.htmlhttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-01/ci-wpn012011.php
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