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Also see the archival list of Science's Compass: Enhanced Perspectives
CLIMATE CHANGE: Enhanced: Where Has All the Carbon Gone?
Steven C. Wofsy
The combustion of fossil fuels continues to rise, but the amount of CO2 accumulating in the atmosphere has not increased accordingly. As Wofsy explains in his Perspective, this discrepancy is explained by the ability of trees and organic matter in forests to sequester carbon (Pacala et al., Fang et al.). Those making land use decisions should factor into their calculations the enormous benefits of forests as carbon sinks for removing anthropogenic CO2 from the atmosphere.
The author is in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. E-mail: scw{at}io.harvard.edu
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In Science Magazine
REPORTS
S. W. Pacala, G. C. Hurtt, D. Baker, P. Peylin, R. A. Houghton, R. A. Birdsey, L. Heath, E. T. Sundquist, R. F. Stallard, P. Ciais, P. Moorcroft, J. P. Caspersen, E. Shevliakova, B. Moore, G. Kohlmaier, E. Holland, M. Gloor, M. E. Harmon, S.-M. Fan, J. L. Sarmiento, C. L. Goodale, D. Schimel, and C. B. Field (22 June 2001) Science292 (5525), 2316.
[DOI: 10.1126/science.1057320] |Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »|Supplemental Data »
REPORTS
Jingyun Fang, Anping Chen, Changhui Peng, Shuqing Zhao, and Longjun Ci (22 June 2001) Science292 (5525), 2320.
[DOI: 10.1126/science.1058629] |Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
