Human biomass utilization reduces global carbon stocks in vegetation by 50%, implying that massive emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere have occurred over the past centuries and millennia. The contribution of forest management and livestock grazing on natural grasslands to global carbon losses is of similar magnitude as that of deforestation. Currently, these effects are underappreciated in existing global carbon models and assessments of the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from land-based production. Without full consideration of land management effects, global climate forecasts and calculations of the GHG effects of future bioenergy policies are error prone, seriously jeopardizing the robust evaluation of measures that would help achieving the 1,5°C target of the Paris Agreement. These are some of the result of a study headed by Karl-Heinz Erb from the Institute of Social Ecology, published in the scientific journal Nature on 20.12.2017. (1)
Scientists analyzing how we affect the forest.
But the forest has affected us a long time ago.
When we walked into the dark and we found our self.
When Midas chased Silenus only to discover what he didn’t want to discover.
Yes, we affect the forests today.
But only from afar. And only to destroy it.
Try to get into a forest and see for yourself.
The owls are not hollowing…
The birds are not singing…
You are deep into the forest alone.
But you know you are not…
The forest is changing you.
You were once part of the forest…
You will once be again…
