Daily Mail - 05.03.2020

Page 26 Daily Mail, Thursday, March 5, 2020

TROPICAL rainforests are losing

their ability to absorb greenhouse

gas as rising temperatures are

killing trees, researchers warn.
Within 15 years, the Amazon rainfor-
est – known as the ‘lungs of the world’

• will start to produce more carbon
  dioxide than it sucks in from the
  atmosphere, they believe.
  And they say that rainforests’ ability to
  trap CO2 has already fallen by one third
  since the 1990s, posing a ‘big concern for
  the future of humanity’. Scientists had

from being a carbon ‘sink’ to being

a source of extra CO2. Research-

ers who tracked 300,000 trees over

30 years in Africa and the Amazon

said it appeared the overall uptake

of carbon by intact tropical forests

peaked in the 1990s.

By the 2010s, the ability of these

forests to absorb CO2 had declined

by a third on average.

The boost to growth that extra

CO2 provides is increasingly

being countered by higher tem-

peratures and drought. These

issues slow growth and can kill

trees, causing carbon losses, the

researchers say.

The area covered by intact for-

ests also declined by almost a fifth

in the face of deforestation – and

CO2 emissions from human activ-

ity jumped by 46 per cent over

that time.

A s a r e s u l t , i n t a c t f o r e s t s

removed 17 per cent of carbon

emissions caused by humans in

the 1990s but only 6 per cent by

the 2010s.

The study was led by the Univer-

sity of Leeds. Senior author Pro-

fessor Simon Lewis, from the

school of geography at Leeds,

said: ‘Intact tropical forests

remain a vital carbon sink but this

research reveals that unless poli-

cies are put in place to stabilise

Earth’s climate, it is only a matter

of time until they are no longer

able to sequester carbon.’

Rainforests ‘can’t

save us from CO 2 ’

They’re losing ability to absorb greenhouse gas

predicted that rainforests would
eventually stop storing CO2 and
start to release it, as dead trees
release greenhouse gas when they
decompose. But the new findings
are worse than the most pessimis-
tic predictions and suggest the
process will begin decades earlier
than forecast.
Vast rainforests such as those
along the Amazon and Congo riv-
ers are among the biggest natural
absorbers of CO2. The gas is
produced by burning fossil fuels,

and when it hangs around in the

atmosphere it traps heat like a

greenhouse. Trees help to stop

the build-up by removing CO2

f r o m t h e a i r a n d s t o r i n g i t

as wood.

Climate models typically predict

rainforests will go on giving

humans a helping hand in dealing

with emissions for decades.

But the study – published in

journal Nature – suggests they

have already started to switch

By Colin Fernandez

Environment Correspondent

Greta thunberg yesterday accused the

european Union of ‘pretending’ to

urgently tackle climate change.

It came as eU leaders unveiled pro-

posed laws to cut greenhouse gas

emissions to net zero by 2050.

But the climate activist, 17, who trav-

elled to the european Parliament for

the discussions, was scathing.

She told MePs: ‘When your house is on

fire, you don’t wait a few more years to

start putting it out.’ She said the eU was

ignoring reality by focusing on an emis-

sions target 30 years away.

the Swedish environmentalist added:

‘Here you are... pretending that you

can be a climate leader and still go on

building and subsidising new fossil

fuel infrastructure.’

the new climate laws would create

powers to set tougher goals for gov-

ernments every five years. But these

powers would only kick in after 2030 –

which will be too late, say activists.

Greta: EU just pretending to act

Scathing: Miss Thunberg at the EU yesterday