Global warming facts: How does deforestation speed up climate change?

With the House recently passing an energy bill that places large emphasis on forest carbon offsets, it is time for everyday citizens to learn facts about global warming. A new report by Rare Conservation outlines how the developing tropic zones and global deforestation are crucial to mitigating climate change.

Similarly, the concluding documents issued at the June U.N. climate change talks at Bonn discuss ways of preventing global deforestation.

With the U.S. joining the developing world to dramatically reduce carbon emissions, there is an urgent need for the public to be made more aware of the destruction of the world’s remaining forests as a major factor leading to global warming.

“Even if the U.S. makes an 80% reduction from current emission levels by 2050,” says Brett Jenks, CEO of the global environmental organization Rare, “this won’t amount to a global warming solution, because the developing world has to act as well.”

Collaborating with local peoples in distant forests needs to be on the public’s radar, too.

Rare is currently running 11 “Pride” campaigns in Indonesia to address forest conservation, including at Lamandau Wildlife Reserve, home to about 100 ex-captive orangutans. These campaigns focus on inspiring local communities to change their behavior to reduce forest clearing. Plus, a “carbon offset” project is currently under discussion for 62,000 acres of forest land adjacent to the Reserve, spearheaded by Rare and the Clinton Climate Initiative-Forestry Program in Southeast Asia.

Global deforestation and climate change, and what can be done about it

• Almost 20% of all global CO2 emissions are caused by deforestation.
• 25% of all emissions reductions called for by 2050 could be achieved by conserving and restoring tropical forests.
• People who are cutting down trees send as much carbon into the atmosphere as do all the activities of the entire U.S.
• At present rates, about 5 1/4 million acres of forest are being destroyed every year.
• 1.6 billion people in the developing tropics depend on the world’s forests for their income, food and fuel.
• 2 trillion dollars per year is the estimated cost to the global economy of burning and clearing forests.
• Today’s conservationists must redefine the adversarial relationship between tropical forest conservation and the world’s economy.
• People living in or near protected forest must be brought into a conservation plan that helps them to be more effective stewards of the land.
• The “cavalry on the horizon” takes the form of the emerging carbon market.
• The world’s treaty makers will create a commodity called “forest carbon.” Local peoples won’t have to liquidate forest resources just to survive.
• The developed world will learn to reward people to leave forests stand, knowing that security in the developed North means development in the tropical South, and that our fates are indelibly intertwined.

For more information, visit www.rareconservation.org.

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