EU Drought, Fires Will Free 500M Tons CO2 - Ecosystems Net Carbon Sources

[hatrack]

Newswise — FOREST fires are raging across southern Spain and Portugal, and African locusts are invading French fields. As this summer's European drought continues, two climate research groups have warned that it will unleash large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, giving further impetus to global warming. Estimates from CarboEurope, a European Union research team based in Jena, Germany, suggest that during July and August 2003, around 500 million tonnes of carbon escaped from western Europe's forests and fields as crops shrivelled, soils desiccated and trees burnt. The releases are equivalent to around twice the emissions from fossil-fuel burning in the region over the same period.

The study, headed by CarboEurope's Philippe Ciais of the Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences in Paris, France, used data from a network of 100sites across the continent. These each analysed air samples for CO2 and then plotted exchange of the gas between ecosystems and the atmosphere. The 2003 carbon releases coincided with a worldwide build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere. US figures show that in August 2003, the atmosphere contained 374parts per million of CO2, which at 3parts per million above the level of the previous August makes it a record year-on-year rise. Two years ago, before the 2003 drought, CarboEurope estimated that Europe's ecosystems were absorbing 7 to 12 per cent of the continent's man-made carbon emissions. But its researchers agree that this year the ecosystems themselves will probably be net releasers of CO2.

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Alon Angert and colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, say this finding dashes the widespread expectation of a "greening trend", in which warm summer temperatures would speed plant growth and moderate climate change by soaking up some of the industrial CO2 emissions. "Excess heating drives the dieback of forest, accelerates soil carbon loss and transforms the land from a sink to a source of carbon for the atmosphere," says team member and atmospheric chemist Inez Fung, also at UC Berkeley. So hotter temperatures amplify human-induced climate change, she adds.

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http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/513574/

[OneBlueSky]

1. environmentally . . . we be fucked! . . . n/t

.

[phantom power]

2. The fact that we're cutting down all the damned forests isn't helping any.

[DELUSIONAL]

3. -- but, but -- then the trees can burn if they aren't cut--

cutting trees prevents forest fires. <sarcasm>

Didn't the GOP "science" Prez say this?

Also it is important to loot & pollute the earth -- before Jesus comes. He'll come sooner. <more sarcasm>