Logging as a way to curb climate change?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Quincy V
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Quincy V

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I'm pretty sure my reasoning is flawed but I'd like someone to tell me why..

As I understand it, trees absorb CO2 as they grow and store it in their wood.
They also store CO2 in their leaves which eventually fall, decay and release at least part of it back in the atmosphere.

So by logging and making wood products such as tables, chairs, houses, etc, aren't we effectively imprisoning that CO2 in the wood on a longer term than a tree's lifespan, while at the same time new trees grow in those forests and imprison even more CO2.

Where do I go wrong in my reasoning? Do we, by logging help release even more CO2 from the soil? Does the logging process release more CO2 than we can possibly store in wood products?
 
Your reasoning is flawed because upon logging the trees the absorbed CO2 in the tree "sink" is released into the atmosphere, not stored in a byproduct such as a table or chair. If we logged the whole rainforest and turned the products into tables the amount of Co2 in the atmosphere would drastically rise.
First the amount of Co2 emitted from the trees cut down which release their stores into the atmosphere upon death would be very large, also we would have no mature trees to absorb even a relative amount of our emissions (saplings in comparison absorb very little) so Co2 levels would drastically rise with nothing to curb emissions, and finally we would have way too many tables and chairs!
 
I think you're right, because the alternative to logging them is to have them burn in a forest fire sooner or later, Then we have to use other materials to make the products we need. Better to sequester that carbon in somebodies house, for a hundred years, and use it for fuel after that. Huge acreages burn every year, a total waste.
But logging is very unpopular with enviromentals, theyare able to sue most every timber sale to a stop. Then, when the forest fires approach their house they demand the forest service come and cut firebreaks. They're the worlds dumbest hypocrites.
 
Alot of the forest is burnt for land cultivation
And alot of the forest logged is then burnt for fuel, and not replaced.
So your reasoning has a flaw when you forget that alot of logged forest is then burnt releasing co2 into the atmosphere but not replaced thus removing the co2 from the atmosphere again.
 
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