Republican Congressman believes chopping down rainforests will solve global warming

Commentary by Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com
27 May 2011 Republican House Representative Dana Rohrabacher shocked scientists on Wednesday when he asserted clear-cutting the world’s rainforests would be a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reports Politico. “Is there some thought being given to subsidizing the clearing of rain forests in order for some countries to eliminate that production of greenhouse gases?” the congressman asked Todd Stern, the lead U.S. climate negotiator during a politically-charged hearing on climate change. “Or would people be supportive of cutting down older trees in order to plant younger trees as a means to prevent this disaster from happening?” Rohrabacher seemed to rationalize his argument by saying that 80-90 percent of greenhouse gas emissions are “generated by nature itself.” He neglects to mention, or fails to understand, that these emissions mostly balance out, unlike emissions from burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, which primarily contribute to climate change. “He’s seriously confused,” Oliver Phillips, a professor of geography at the UK’s University of Leeds in Britain and an author of several papers carbon storage in forests, told The New York Times. “He’s just got half of the equation. Natural things decay, of course, but they also grow. … The need is to reduce deforestation.” …

Congressman Rohrabacher believes chopping down rainforests will solve global warming