Surprisingly, Tropical Forests Are Not a Carbon Sink

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Surprisingly, Tropical Forests Are Not a Carbon Sink
Due to human activities, these forests emit more CO2 than all of America's cars and trucks
By Adam Aton, ClimateWire on September 29, 2017
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/surprisingly-tropical-forests-are-not-a-carbon-sink/

Tropical forests are adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than they're removing, according to a new study that estimates the world's lush canopies emit more CO2 than all of America's cars and trucks.

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Historically, scientists have underestimated forest emissions by focusing mostly on clearcutting, big fires and other overt deforestation, said Wayne Walker, one of the report's authors and an associate scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center, a climate change think tank.

But those analyses have missed degradation from humans, like selective logging, as well as natural disturbances like drought and disease, which are becoming worse as the world warms, Walker said. "While [those losses] might be small in any one place, when you add up all those losses of individual trees across an area as large as the whole pan-tropical belt, it's significant," he said.

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Excerpt.