Forests Play a Complex but Crucial Role in the Climate Change Equation
by RP Siegel
Usually when we talk about climate change and what we can do to mitigate its impacts, we talk about ways to cut back carbon emissions through alternatives, or policy actions, or efficiency measures. We usually don’t think about the role that forests play in this equation. The fact is, forests absorb much of the carbon that our cars, and homes, and power plants emit—about a third of it, actually. That means that if we had three times as much forest as we do today, which, of course we did, not that long ago, we wouldn’t have that big of a problem keeping our climate the way it’s been for a long time.
Of course, forests take a long time to grow and we don’t exactly have millions of acres sitting around, doing nothing, that we can turn into forests. If anything, things are going the other way. Forests are continuously being turned into farmland to feed the growing population. The point is to recognize the important role that forests do play in this unfolding tale of our battle against time in the face of a climate that is becoming unstable.
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Image credit: Rudolf Vlček: Flickr Creative Commons
RP Siegel, author and inventor, shines a powerful light on numerous environmental and technological topics. He has been published in business and technical journals and has written three books. His third, co-authored with Roger Saillant, is Vapor Trails, an eco-thriller that is being adapted for the big screen. RP is a professional engineer – and a prolific inventor, with 50 patents, numerous awards, and several commercial products. He is president of Rain Mountain LLC and is an active environmental advocate in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y. In addition to Justmeans, he writes for Triple Pundit, ThomasNet News, and Energy Viewpoints, occasionally contributing to Mechanical Engineering, Strategy + Business, and Huffington Post.
