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Profile Dominique
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Message 628868 - Posted: 29 Aug 2007, 14:43:54 UTC

An inconvenient fact
Patrick Moore, Special to The Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, August 29, 2007


Despite the anti-forestry scare tactics of celebrity movies, trees are the most powerful concentrators of carbon on Earth according to Dr. Patrick Moore as a co-founder of Greenpeace and chairman and chief scientist of Greenspirit Strategies Ltd. in Vancouver.

It seems like there's a new doomsday documentary every month. But seldom does one receive the coverage that Hollywood activist Leonardo DiCaprio's latest climate-change rant, The 11th Hour, is getting.

When we're bombarded anew with theatrical images of our earth's ecosystems when the film opens across B.C. this Friday, I'm concerned that we're losing sight of some indisputable facts.

Here's a key piece of information DiCaprio, collaborator and long-time activist Tzeporah Berman and the leadership of my old organization Greenpeace are ignoring when it comes to forests and carbon: For British Columbians, living among the largest area of temperate rainforest in the world, managing our forests will be a key to reducing greenhouse gases.

As a lifelong environmentalist, I say trees can solve many of the world's sustainability challenges. Forestry is the most sustainable of all the primary industries that provide us with energy and materials. Rather than cutting fewer trees and using less wood, DiCaprio and Berman ought to promote the growth of more trees and the use of more wood.

Trees are the most powerful concentrators of carbon on Earth. Through photosynthesis, they absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in their wood, which is nearly 50 per cent carbon by weight. Trees contain about 250 kilograms of carbon per cubic metre.

North Americans are the world's largest per-capita wood consumers and yet our forests cover approximately the same area of land as they did 100 years ago. According to the United Nations, our forests have expanded nearly 100 million acres over the past decade.

The relationship between trees and greenhouse gases is simple enough on the surface. Trees grow by taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and, through photosynthesis, converting it into sugars. The sugars are then used as energy and materials to build cellulose and lignin, the main constituents of wood.

There is a misconception that cutting down an old tree will result in a net release of carbon. Yet wooden furniture made in the Elizabethan era still holds the carbon that was fixed hundreds of years ago.

Berman, a veteran of the forestry protest movement, should by now have learned that young forests outperform old growth in carbon sequestration.

Although old trees contain huge amounts of carbon, their rate of sequestration has slowed to a near halt. A young tree, although it contains little fixed carbon, pulls CO2 from the atmosphere at a much faster rate.

When a tree rots or burns, the carbon contained in the wood is released back to the atmosphere. Since combustion releases carbon, active forest management -- such as removing dead trees and clearing debris from the forest floor -- will be imperative in reducing the number and intensity of fires.

The role of forests in the global carbon cycle can be boiled down to these key points:

Deforestation, primarily in tropical forests, is responsible for about 20 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions. This is occurring where forests are permanently cleared and converted to agriculture and urban settlement.

In many countries with temperate forests, there has been an increase in carbon stored in trees in recent years. This includes the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Sweden.

The most important factors influencing the carbon cycle are deforestation on the negative side, and the use of wood, from sustainably managed forests, as a substitute for non-renewable materials and fuels, on the positive side.

To address climate change, we must use more wood, not less. Using wood sends a signal to the marketplace to grow more trees and to produce more wood. That means we can then use less concrete, steel and plastic -- heavy carbon emitters through their production. Trees are the only abundant, biodegradable and renewable global resource.

DiCaprio's movie, The 11th Hour, is another example of anti-forestry scare tactics, this time said to be "brilliant and terrifying" by James Christopher of the London Times.

Maybe so, but instead of surrendering to the terror, keep in mind that there are solutions to the challenges of climate, and our forests are among them.

This film should be a good, clear reminder for us to put the science before the Hollywood hype.

Dr. Patrick Moore is a co-founder of Greenpeace and chairman and chief scientist of Greenspirit Strategies Ltd. in Vancouver.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

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Message 630357 - Posted: 31 Aug 2007, 19:48:11 UTC
Last modified: 31 Aug 2007, 20:09:43 UTC

Well, a lot of the climate changes can be attributed to humanity, but I don't think we can discount the sun from contributing to the global warming, just yet.

Global warming? Think Celestial warming I was going to copy a few links from the web page, but it's easier to just reference to it.
Anyway, the web page has links to other websites that shows global warming are occuring on many planets, and some moons in our solar system. And some other strange occurences, such as Brighter Neptune Suggests a Planetary Change of Seasons
"The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible"
Arthur C. Clarke

"Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination."
Bertrand Russel
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Message 631290 - Posted: 1 Sep 2007, 19:46:02 UTC

It strikes me that if CO2 was a major contributer to Global warming and if it was as serious as they are all trying to tell us, IE: we could be extinct in a few hundred years, would they really be selling us the soloutions?
whats the point of that? most of the world can't afford to buy them so we all die and you really can't take it with you. shouldn't they be giving it away?

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Message 632251 - Posted: 2 Sep 2007, 19:31:24 UTC - in response to Message 631290.  

It strikes me that if CO2 was a major contributer to Global warming and if it was as serious as they are all trying to tell us, IE: we could be extinct in a few hundred years, would they really be selling us the soloutions?
whats the point of that? most of the world can't afford to buy them so we all die and you really can't take it with you. shouldn't they be giving it away?


Also what people dont get is the manufacturing CO2 emmisions... Scientists have shown that a 1970 gas gusseler is more effecient than a hybrid car due to manufacturing emmisions. That and also hybrids batteries only last 8 years so instead of making a car every 30+ years they make them every 8 years.

Amazing that since we are "saving the planet" by producing more CO2 due to manufacturing.

~BoB


Do you Good Search for Seti@Home? http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=888957
Or Good Shop? http://www.goodshop.com/?charityid=888957
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Message 641273 - Posted: 14 Sep 2007, 17:50:35 UTC
Last modified: 14 Sep 2007, 17:50:51 UTC

Higher temperatures are bringing some benefits to the sub-Arctic south part of Greenland. You can now buy broccoli in the shops for the first time this year.

Best now to interfere with Greenland shopping habits, eh? Perhaps we should let Climate Change take it's course and bring hope of Asparagus Spears to the colder climes.


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Message 641300 - Posted: 14 Sep 2007, 18:29:22 UTC - in response to Message 641273.  

Higher temperatures are bringing some benefits to the sub-Arctic south part of Greenland. You can now buy broccoli in the shops for the first time this year.

Best now to interfere with Greenland shopping habits, eh? Perhaps we should let Climate Change take it's course and bring hope of Asparagus Spears to the colder climes.


Greenland's new motto - Let's put the Green back in Greenland.
Hopefully the cosmos is not trying to reverse the charges.
Moderation in all things.
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Message 641813 - Posted: 15 Sep 2007, 16:17:11 UTC - in response to Message 641300.  

Higher temperatures are bringing some benefits to the sub-Arctic south part of Greenland. You can now buy broccoli in the shops for the first time this year.

Best now to interfere with Greenland shopping habits, eh? Perhaps we should let Climate Change take it's course and bring hope of Asparagus Spears to the colder climes.


Greenland's new motto - Let's put the Green back in Greenland.

That's what people have been saying for years now - Greenland and Iceland will become the only habitable parts of the world after the rest is turned to desert due to Climate Change.


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Message 641815 - Posted: 15 Sep 2007, 16:20:50 UTC


Warming 'opens Northwest Passage'

The most direct shipping route from Europe to Asia is fully clear of ice for the first time since records began, the European Space Agency (Esa) says.



Historically, the Northwest Passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans has been ice-bound through the year.

But the agency says ice cover has been steadily shrinking, and this summer's reduction has made the route navigable.

The findings, based on satellite images, raised concerns about the speed of global warming.

'Extreme'

The Northwest Passage is one of the most fabled sea routes in the world - a short cut from Europe to Asia through the Canadian Arctic.


Recent years have seen a marked shrinkage in its ice cover, but this year it was extreme, Esa says.

It says this made the passage "fully navigable" for the first time since monitoring began in 1978.

"We have seen the ice-covered area drop to just around 3m sq km (1.2m sq miles)," Leif Toudal Pedersen of the Danish National Space Centre said.

He said it was "about 1m sq km (386,000 sq miles) less than the previous minima of 2005 and 2006".

"There has been a reduction of the ice cover over the last 10 years of about 100, 000 sq km (38,600 sq miles) per year on average, so a drop of 1m sq km (386,000 sq miles) in just one year is extreme," Mr Pedersen said.

The Northeast Passage through the Russian Arctic has also seen its ice cover shrink and it currently "remains only partially blocked," Esa says.

'Battle for Arctic'

Scientists have linked the changes to global warming which may be progressing faster than expected.

The opening of the sea routes is already leading to international disputes.

Canada says it has full rights over those parts of the Northwest Passage that pass through its territory and that it can bar transit there.

But this has been disputed by the US and the European Union.

They argue that the new route should be an international strait that any vessel can use.


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Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : Climate Change


 
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