Thoughts on Managing Forests for Carbon Sequestration

摘要

The 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the 2006Stern Report, and this year's Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change report-plus continuing observationsof glacier melting, weather aberrations, and changes inanimal and plant distribution have caused a resurgencein concerns regarding potential global climate change.Atmospheric levels of C02 continue to rise, and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data show that the United States emits about 26 tons of C02 per capita annually. Despite the US not joining international efforts to limit greenhouse gases, there are several voluntary initiatives, including the nine-state Northeast Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the California Climate ActionRegistry (CCAR), and the Chicago Climate Exchange(CCX), in which C02 is currently trading at dollar 3.60 per ton.In addition, there is a growing swell of state and federallegislative actions either setting or considering C02 cap-and-trade mechanisms, energy conservation, and other environmental actions that potentially affect forests andforest management.