Trees Absorb a Fifth of Carbon Emissions Pumped Out by Humans

Submitted by Rene Jones Lafflam on Mon, 2009-03-02 13:23.

Photo: Planters from the Willow Creek after school program helped plant 100 boulevard trees on Marion Road during an RNeighborWoods Community Tree Planting.

The below information was sent to us by the Alliance for Community Trees, of which RNeighbors is a member of.

Washington, DC (February 19, 2009)- The journal Nature published a study that found nearly one-fifth of fossil fuel emissions are absorbed by forests across Africa, Amazonia, and Asia. Lewis found that on average the trees are getting bigger and absorbing more CO2, contrary to the theory that mature forests are carbon neutral as a result of the carbon absorbed by new trees being balanced by that released from old trees dying.

Dr. Simon Lewis, a Royal Society research fellow at the University of Leeds and author of the paper, added a 40-year study of African forests to existing data on South American and Asian forests, and concluded, “Tropical forest trees are absorbing about 18 percent of the CO2 added to the atmosphere each year from burning fossil fuels, substantially buffering the rate of climate change.”

The findings could be used to pressure world leaders to halt deforestation, Lewis said. “It’s good news for now but the effect won’t last forever. The trees can’t keep on getting bigger and bigger,” Lewis noted.

The entire study can be found here, as well as an additional AP story.