Forests soak up third of emissions: study

Forests play a larger role in the earth's climate system than previously suspected for both the risks from deforestation and the potential gains from regrowth, a benchmark study has shown.
The study, published in Science on Thursday, provides the most accurate measure so far of the amount of greenhouse gases absorbed from the atmosphere by tropical, temperate and boreal forests, researchers said.
"This is the first complete and global evidence of the overwhelming role of forests in removing anthropogenic carbon dioxide," said co-author Josep Canadell, a scientist at CSIRO, Australia's national climate research centre in Canberra.

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"If you were to stop deforestation tomorrow, the world's established and regrowing forests would remove half of fossil fuel emissions," he told AFP, describing the findings as both "incredible" and "unexpected".

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/forests-soak-up-third-of-emissions-study-20110715-1hhl2.html#ixzz1SGMF09pp