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Carbon Bombs Away!
Canada’s Wilderness at the Forefront of Climate Change
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by
Sarah Veale
May 29 - June 4, 2008 |
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Canada’s boreal forest forest contains a payload of greenhouse
gasses that could push global greenhouse gas emissions over the
edge if the destruction of Canada’s wilderness continues,
according to a recent report by Greenpeace.
Based on research conducted at the University of Toronto,
the report warns of a potential “Carbon Bomb” which could
unleash unprecedented amounts of carbon dioxide and methane
into the atmosphere.
Logging in Canada’s boreal forest is one of the biggest
threats to climate security, Greenpeace says. Like many
environmental issues, the “Carbon Bomb” has many potential
contributors – thinning of mature treed areas, melting of the
permafrost, and disruption of natural ecosystems, to name a few
– but many of these effects, the group claims, are exacerbated by
the intentional erosion of the North’s green areas and their
subsequent inability to cope with global warming.
Not everyone agrees with Greenpeace’s findings. In an op–ed
to the Financial Post, Natural Resource Canada’s Dr. Werner Kurz
dismissed any connection between logging and the litany of
maladies Greenpeace has laid before it.
“Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation are
having impacts on the severity of forest fires and insect
infestations. But these impacts are not the result of local logging
activities,” Kurz, a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, wrote, citing that over three times the amount of
boreal forest area is lost to forest fires as opposed to forestry.
“The notion that harvesting will somehow result in the release of
a major portion of the carbon stored in the rest of the boreal
forest is not supported by science.”
Greenpeace did not return calls to comment on its report.
The boreal forest stores around 186 billion tones of carbon,
an amount on par with 27 years’ worth of burning fossil fuels.
Though it represents 90 per cent of the nation’s intact forest
areas, only a fraction of that – just over 8 per cent – is legally
protected from industry. Annually, logging chops down 900,000
hectares, resulting in an above ground loss of carbon that’s
estimated to be equal to the emissions of all of Canada’s
passenger vehicles.
“Conservation of boreal ecosystems is important both as a
strategy to reduce GHG emissions and to help ecosystems adapt
to climate change,” says Matt Carlson, a spokesperson with the
Canadian Boreal Initiative, a group which works with
environmentalists, industry, and First Nations to preserve the
boreal forest. “Protecting intact boreal ecosystems protects their
massive carbon store, which means that less carbon ends up in
the atmosphere where it contributes to climate change.”
Though it was once thought rising temperatures could help
the area by spurring carbon–hungry tree growth, global warming
is increasing the likelihood of insect infestations (such as the pine
beetle outbreak in British Columbia and Alberta), producing
longer and more intense forest fires, and speeding up melting of
the greenhouse gas–rich permafrost. However, research suggests
these carbon–releasing effects can be slowed by easing off the
oldest areas of Canada’s wilderness.
“The boreal is pretty unique compared to other parts of the
globe in that it houses about one–quarter of the remaining intact
forest ecosystems – these are areas that have not yet been
disturbed by industrial activity,” Carlson says. “We have this real
opportunity in Canada’s boreal region to plan land use in
advance…this really hasn’t been the case across the rest of the
globe.”
Industry is moving towards responsible forestry
management, but how effective following a clear cut with a
replanting of new trees is still raises a debate. Critics say new
forests haven’t been able to mimic natural habitats, preventing
original species, such as the woodland caribou, from returning.
They also aren’t storing the same amount of carbon. In fact, intact
forest areas hoard 12 per cent more carbon than their regrowth
counterparts.
“Certainly the capacity to balance forestry with maintaining
the roles of the ecosystem, such as wildlife habitat, has improved
over time. However, a managed forest ecosystem is not going to
be the same as an intact forest ecosystem,” says Carlson. “We
need to balance the need [for forest products] with the need to
maintain intact healthy ecosystems”
Greenpeace is calling for a government–imposed moratorium
on industrial development in the forest’s intact areas until a
sustainable, science–based solution can be reached by industry,
environmental groups, and the First Nations. The report, however,
was met with a chilly response from the forestry industry, who
categorizes Greenpeace’s overtures as “throwing stones.”
The Canadian Boreal Initiative feels all concerned parties
need to be at the table working together – especially the
government. “The boreal forest covers over half of Canada, and it
is one of Canada’s greatest resources, so it certainly should be an
issue that’s at the top of the federal government’s agenda,”
Carlson says, emphasizing the need to take action at both the
federal and provincial level.
“It’s not until development is pretty far down the road that
people realize that there are severe impacts to the environment,”
Carlson says. “By then, it’s often too late to do something about
it.” V [Sarah Veale]
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