![]() ![]() Additionally, while the benefits of biomass energy are vigorously debated, in the long run the use of biomass energy in place of fossil fuels produces carbon benefits too. Using wood in construction is particularly advantageous if it is used in place of concrete and steel which are much more carbon intensive. Since trees are about 50% carbon, using them in long lived buildings “locks up” that carbon for a long time. The use of forest products also plays a role in the carbon cycle. Forests are in that way a kind of carbon sponge. The great thing about forests is that healthy forests sequester more carbon than they give off. ![]() In a greenhouse gas context, the data they produce is useful to, let’s call them carbon accountants, who track forest greenhouse gas debits and credits. The info they generate is useful in a lot of ways. ![]() This branch of the Forest Service is called Forest Inventory and Analysis. One of the responsibilities of the US Forest Service is to do periodic inventories of how many trees there are in the United States, their growth, and other factors about where they grow. It’s this give and take of carbon dioxide in forests that enables us to call it a cycle. Trees that die due to insects, disease, fires or old age eventually decay too and release carbon into the soils and carbon dioxide into the air. When this occurs, greenhouse gas levels increase (see Fig. In addition to the loss of lives, property, and effects on remaining forests, a fire causes lots of carbon dioxide to be released into the air. It is, in effect, pulling carbon dioxide out of the air.įorest fires are in the news a lot these days. Scientists call this process of carbon gain sequestration. In the case of trees, wood is produced and is about 50% carbon. As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from the air, converting the CO 2 into plant matter by way of photosynthesis. If the atmosphere was a checking account, sometimes things happening in the forests act as credits to the checking account, sometimes they are debits. Scientists describe this as the carbon cycle. Forests influence atmospheric greenhouse gas levels in ways most people don’t think about. ![]()
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