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Article: Trees lose their appeal as panacea for global warming
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- October 21, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1999 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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PLANTING TREES may be a bad way of trying to slow global warming,
according to research from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change.
It says new "carbon sink" forests will quickly become saturated
with carbon and begin to return much of the carbon they contain into
the atmosphere just as global warming accelerates.
The panel's report, highlighted in New Scientist magazine,
undermines a key provision of the Kyoto Protocol, which requires
industrialised countries to cut CO2 emissions. Under it, countries
are allowed to offset emissions by planting trees, at home or in
other countries, and count the carbon so absorbed against their
industrial emissions.
The United ...