Wednesday, January 09, 2008
BEARS HUNGRY, FORESTS GROWTHY
This site on polar bear cannibalism, June 2006:
Maybe they just like eating other polar bears.
Turns out they really do, even if they’re well-fed. (This evidence of indiscriminate polar munchiness may slightly dent Tara Brown’s global warming theory.) Meanwhile, trees are everywhere:
Claims that tropical forests are declining cannot be backed up by hard evidence, according to new research from the University of Leeds.
This major challenge to conventional thinking is the surprising finding of a study published today in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences by Dr Alan Grainger, Senior Lecturer in Geography and one of the world’s leading experts on tropical deforestation.
"Every few years we get a new estimate of the annual rate of tropical deforestation,” said Dr Grainger. “They always seem to show that these marvellous forests have only a short time left. Unfortunately, everybody assumes that deforestation is happening and fails to look at the bigger picture – what is happening to forest area as a whole ...
“If there is no long-term net decline it suggests that deforestation is being accompanied by a lot of natural reforestation that we have not spotted.”
The carbon offsetting industry won’t be happy about this.
(Via Hal G.P. Colebatch and Garth Godsman)
UPDATE. The NYT:
Corporations and shoppers in the United States spent more than $54 million last year on carbon offset credits toward tree planting, wind farms, solar plants and other projects to balance the emissions created by, say, using a laptop computer or flying on a jet.
But where exactly is that money going?
(Via Toby B.)
UPDATE II. Bears have a long history of eating stuff.