Why are Carbon Footprints and Environmental Product Declarations missing the real benefits of timber?

摘要

Recent press has cast doubt over how effective forestry is as a useful tool to mitigate climate change. They have concentrated on one article in Science (Naudts et al. 2016) that reports on the albedo effect of the trees and the harvesting techniquesused in recent times in Europe. The results are summarised by Monahan (2016):"The conifers are worse for the climate because they absorb more light with their dark color, trapping heat that would otherwise be reflected back into space. They also release less cooling water, into the atmosphere through evaporation. Together, thesetwo factors were to blame for 0.08'C of the region's warming. Foresters removing trees for wood products contributed another 0.02°C by releasing carbon that would otherwise be stored in forest debris and soil."