Tom Warren:
>Subsequent later work in CO2 studies in the arctic environment compounds the
>problem. In the biosphere of Earth -- as opposed to the controlled
>Biospheres 1&2 -- the millions of years of CO2 absorption went not into
>concrete but into the carbon sinks of soil, ocean floor and lake beds. As we
>heat up the atmosphere, the CO2 is released. (very big time release.)
>
>So a projected global government implementing draconian standards, rather
>than Kyoto Protocol band-aids, could plant biomass on every square mile of
>desert and still be playing catch-up as the temperatures rise ....
Here's more bad news. The scientists have backtracked and now back the
foolish proposal to grow more trees rather than attack the problem at its
source, namely the right of corporations to make profits selling SUVs, etc.
NY Times, February 10, 2001
New Report Backs Planting More Trees to Fight Warming
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
An influential panel of scientists is preparing to endorse two strategies
for curtailing global warming that have been major points of contention
between the United States and Europe in efforts to complete a climate treaty.
In a report scheduled for next month, the panel concludes that by
protecting existing forests and planting new ones, countries could blunt
warming by sopping up 10 to 20 percent of the heat-trapping carbon dioxide
that is expected to be released by smokestacks and tailpipes over the next
50 years.
It also says the cost to industrialized countries of a global climate plan
could be cut in half if they were allowed to buy and sell credits earned by
those that make the deepest reductions in carbon dioxide and other
so-called greenhouse gases.
The conclusions could bolster the position of the United States when
negotiations over details of the treaty resume this summer. But some
experts involved in the talks stressed that a scientific analysis of
untested climate-control strategies says little about whether such efforts
would prove effective.
"The big question is whether real programs in the real world will work,"
said Dr. Daniel A. Lashof, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources
Defense Council, a private environmental group. "The devil's in the details."
The report was written by a working group within the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, a network of hundreds of scientists who advise
governments on climate issues under the auspices of the United Nations. The
group plans to release it at a meeting in Ghana.
A final draft was recently sent to governments for comment, and a copy was
given to The New York Times by an American official.
The panel's findings are closely watched by governments as a barometer of
mainstream scientific thinking on global warming.
Full article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/10/science/10CLIM.html
Louis Proyect
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