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Logging Boreal Forest Could Detonate Massive ‘Carbon Bomb

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:25:27 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: The same could happen in the Amazon if they keep cutting down the rainforest for cattle and soy beans--we are dooming ourselves out of greed and ignorance. AAArrgh

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

OTTAWA - Canada’s boreal forest is a ticking “carbon bomb” and its continued logging could trigger a massive release of greenhouse gases, says a new report.

A Greenpeace study released Thursday says cutting down trees in the boreal forest is exacerbating climate change by releasing stores of greenhouse gases trapped in soil and vegetation.

It also found that logging makes the forest more susceptible to insect outbreaks and wildfires which, if widespread, could cause a spike in greenhouse-gas emissions - the so-called “carbon bomb.”

And the report says a warmer climate melts permafrost, releasing methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

“The idea is that if the current trends continue … what could happen is a sudden and massive release of greenhouse gases from the forest caused by a rapid outbreak of forest or peat fires,” said Greenpeace’s Christy Gerguson.

About 80 per cent of the carbon is stored in the soil as dead organic matter.

Truth’s Wreckage

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:56:31 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

The interests of war, which siphon off 40 percent of every dollar we pay in taxes, have no choice but to declare peace - or at least truth - anti-American, because the blood myth of national exceptionalism, and the perpetual insecurity it creates, is all they’ve got.

It’s also all they need.

Did anyone, for instance, expect the Petraeus-Crocker testimony before Congress this week to affect or even address what we’re actually doing in Iraq? The best we get is some mild criticism from the opposition party, stern words about our “missteps” in the waltz to victory, ineffective calls for a timetable for troop withdrawal that, sincere or wholly insincere, will not in fact lead to a timetable for troop withdrawal because nothing is on the line in this testimony; and, in any case, no congressperson dares trample on “the seeds of nascent democracy” our boys and girls have been planting over there for the last five years. And lo, “There has been growth,” the general declared.

It’s Time to Challenge Gen. Petraeus

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:54:05 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

As a former member of your Committee, I urge you to pursue some of the troubling questions that were left unanswered by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker during today’s hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The most serious is whether the surge of U.S. forces is making things worse, not better in Iraq both militarily and politically. In addition, can we afford to continue to fund sectarian combatants who have not shown the slightest inclination to compromise and reconcile?

It is crucial that General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker be challenged on these crucial points and that you use the opportunity of your hearing to separate myth from reality in Iraq.

General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker continue to portray the Maliki government as combating lawlessness in an effort to unite Iraq under the rule of law. I urge you to make clear that this is a dangerous departure from reality. In fact, Iraq is more bitterly divided now than before the surge began.