Dr. Patrick Moore, co-founder of GreenPeace, says in an op/ed for the Vancouver Sun that we should put science before Hollywood hype. He's specifically referring to Leonardo DiCaprio's "The 11th Hour," the latest science fiction movie trying to pass itself off as a documentary.
Moore debunks a number of myths embraced by the tree huggers:
North Americans are the world's largest per-capita wood consumers and yet our forests cover approximately the same area of land as they did 100 years ago. According to the United Nations, our forests have expanded nearly 100 million acres over the past decade.
and
There is a misconception that cutting down an old tree will result in a net release of carbon. Yet wooden furniture made in the Elizabethan era still holds the carbon fixed hundreds of years ago.
Berman, a veteran of the forestry protest movement, should by now have learned that young forests outperform old growth in carbon sequestration.
Although old trees contain huge amounts of carbon, their rate of sequestration has slowed to a near halt. A young tree, although it contains little fixed carbon, pulls CO2 from the atmosphere at a much faster rate.
And here's one in support of smart forest management and the timber industry:
When a tree rots or burns, the carbon contained in the wood is released back to the atmosphere. Since combustion releases carbon, active forest management -- such as removing dead trees and clearing debris from the forest floor -- will be imperative in reducing the number and intensity of fires.
In fact, Moore says we should be using MORE wood products and not less.
I don't believe there's anything humanity can do in the natural course of our daily actions to affect climate on the scale claimed by Al Gore and his disciples, but Moore's interjection of science over scare is welcome.
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