Daniel J. Zarin - Where the trees are disappearing
(CNN) -- The loss of native tropical forests
accounts for more than 10% of the carbon emissions responsible for the changing
climate, receiving much-deserved attention at the recent U.N. climate change
conference in Warsaw .
When forests are cleared and burned, the carbon contained in
the trees and other vegetation -- roughly half of their dry weight -- is
released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas
contributing to global warming. Most of the carbon dioxide emissions caused by
human activity come from fossil fuels. But native tropical forests average
about 150 tons of carbon per hectare, and millions of hectares are cleared and
burned every year.
Over the past decade, governments and industry have
responded to growing pressure to reverse deforestation, sometimes committing to
reducing it to zero. But with few exceptions, we've lacked the tools to assess
accountability.
This changed when Science magazine published a
groundbreaking analysis of annual deforestation on the entire planet between
2000 and 2012. With the help of Google Earth and using advanced computing
techniques, University of Maryland
Go to Global Forest Change and click on different
regions. Use the pulldown menu to see the state of forests all over the world
from 2000 to 2012, using several measurements. Go to the damage locations like
the swath of the Alabama tornado,
Siberian forest fires, palm oil plantations in Borneo ,
and many more. Distant regions are close at hand, the range of forests becomes
easy to grasp, and the speed at which many of the forests are vanishing grows
far more difficult to ignore.
More than 60 governments have signed on to the World
Wildlife Fund's pledge to achieve "zero net deforestation" by 2020.
The pledge specifically excludes offsetting native forest loss with tree
plantations, although regrowing forests on abandoned lands can be subtracted
from any "gross" deforestation.
With the new digitized maps and data available online, civil
society watchdogs can and should hold governments accountable for making
progress toward their targets. read more:
