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Civilizations over the last 1000 years have also stripped away the untouched virgin forests in many places on this planet. This continues today in Brazil, and I am sure in many other places, although the original virgin forests in most cases were removed long ago.
When the same group that recovered the gold from the shipwreck Central America, found trees under the water in the western Great Lakes, they found virgin forest trees that no longer exist anywhere on the planet. Pine trees that were 500 years old and with wood so dense the logs sank to the bottom.
What percentage of the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere is due to deforestation?
Long ago England stripped away their ancient forests to build the ships of the line centuries ago. A recent aerial photo of Haiti shows the difference in deforestation compared to the adjacent country.
Reforestation would seem to me to be the most effective way to use nature to counteract man made carbon emissions. Not a solution by itself, but certainly a step in the right direction. With mankind's advances in controlled agriculture, why not invest a small amount in reseeding and let nature work for you.
A long time ago I remember reading that if all the polar ice caps and glaciers melted the ocean levels would rise by 135 feet. Not sure what the current prediction is today, but if we allow the global temperatures to rise by several degrees, I wonder how much more water vapor would be suspended in the atmosphere by that same heat, and what would be it's effects on precipitation.
It would seem logical to me (maybe just to me, who knows) that as global temperatures rise, the areas on the planet where vegetation could grow would also increase, which would mitigate the warming effects, especially if amplified by increases in vegetation, which consumes CO2 for photosynthesis.
regards
Mech
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