PHOTO COURTESY: WOODS HOLE RESEARCH CENTER
WOODS HOLE – Two Woods Hole Research Center scientists say that better management of tropical forests could stabilize or even reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and serve as a bridge to a world powered by renewable energy.
In the upcoming issue of Nature Climate Change, the two scientists, Richard A. Houghton and Alexander Nassikas, write that restoration of tropical forests would make it easier to achieve the goal of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius.
Most strategies for meeting the two degrees goal rely on immediate and severe reductions in fossil fuel use, which would be very difficult to achieve.
The authors show that if tropical deforestation were not only stopped but reversed, enough CO2 would be removed from the atmosphere to stabilize concentration at current levels while reducing dependence on fossil fuels.
The scientists emphasize that forest restoration is not a substitute for reducing fossil fuel use.
Tropical land management, they say, can work only in tandem with the elimination of fossil fuel combustion.
While not a complete solution, reforestation can be the bridge to a world with 100 percent renewable energy from sources like the wind and sun.
They also concede that their proposed climate strategies face significant political and economic challenges, notably competition for use of land, especially from agriculture.
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