We all know that deforestation have its effects on climate. But, on what does it depend? – It’s solely ‘location.’ The effectiveness of the tropical forests’ reducing of warming by absorbing carbon is confirmed recently, according to a new finding published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’ online edition.
But, it is different in the snowy latitudes. Here, forests may actually increase local warming by absorbing solar energy, which otherwise, would be reflected back out into space, the finding reveals.
So, the environmentalists’ universal concern about global warming — that it is the preservation of forests that can reduce warming by absorbing carbon dioxide — is not applicable to all locations. Thus, it may be more complicated than it first appears.
But, does that give the loggers good reasons to chop down forests in cold areas? No, it’s not just that as been stressed by Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution department of global ecology, located at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.
Caldeira, a co-author of the report said,
I am a little concerned about this being misapplied as an excuse to chop down the forests in the name of saving the environment.
A primary reason we are trying to slow global warming is to protect nature. It just makes no sense to destroy natural ecosystems in the name of saving natural ecosystems.