Deforestation: The Hidden Cause of Global Warming

Deforestation accounts for about 25 percent of carbon emissions that contribute to global warming. Reducing slash-and-burn techniques in the world’s rainforests could substantially slow climate change, suggests Daniel Howden for the Independent, in explaining a report from the Global Canopy Programme, an alliance of 29 scientific institutions in 19 countries. “No new technology is needed, says the GCP, just the political will and a system of enforcement and incentives that makes the trees worth more to governments and individuals standing than felled,” Howden writes. But in efforts to combat climate change, governments at all levels and treaties, including Kyoto, overlook deforestation. Instead, governments embrace high-tech “science fiction solutions.” Determining the contributions of forests and their prices is the first step to saving them. – YaleGlobal