Page - April 9, 2008
Recently, government regulators and the Canadian forest products
industry have been denying that logging in the Boreal Forest
contributes to global warming, primarily by arguing that when
forests are logged, the carbon within them is stored for long
periods of time in forest products. This argument does not live up
to scientific scrutiny.
Not only is it based on a number of false assumptions (for
example, that most or all of the trees logged end up in
long-lasting products like dimensional lumber), but it paints a
simplistic picture of logging that fails to account for important
factors such as the carbon lost from soils during logging, the
carbon emitted for years after logging ends, the areas permanently
deforested through the building of roads and landings, and the
carbon dioxide and methane emitted as permafrost melts and as
products decompose in landfills. This argument also fails to
account for the many consequences of fragmentation on the health of
the forest as a whole, including increased vulnerability to global
warming impacts, and reduced ability of animals and trees to
migrate, adapt, and survive under warming conditions.
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