Greenhouse effect had led to increase in Carbon dioxide as the trees have been cut for the source of bio fuels. A team from Oregon University suggested that if more and more trees from forests will be cut down then there might be an increase in the greenhouse effect and later we can face difficulties.
Now a days due to production of more and more biofuels from the forests have led to the greenhouse effect mostly in the forest lands in Oregon, Washington and California.These forests are sequestering carbon, or absorbing more than they release to the atmosphere.The largest and the most comprehensive study on the effect of the biofuel production yet done was in the West Coast forests which suggests that an emphasis on bioenergy would increase if there is deforestation and it would increase carbon dioxide emissions which would lead to greenhouse effect. Before this also a brief study was done which suggested that the biofuels from the forests would be carbon-neutral or even reduce greenhouse emissions but it did not come true .
Now a days due to production of more and more biofuels from the forests have led to the greenhouse effect mostly in the forest lands in Oregon, Washington and California.These forests are sequestering carbon, or absorbing more than they release to the atmosphere.The largest and the most comprehensive study on the effect of the biofuel production yet done was in the West Coast forests which suggests that an emphasis on bioenergy would increase if there is deforestation and it would increase carbon dioxide emissions which would lead to greenhouse effect. Before this also a brief study was done which suggested that the biofuels from the forests would be carbon-neutral or even reduce greenhouse emissions but it did not come true .
Scientists from the College of Forestry at Oregon State University and other institutions in Germany and France studied the change in the nature's climate and it was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. For four years, the Oregon State study examined 80 forest types in 19 ecological regions in the three states, ranging from temperate rainforests to semi-arid woodlands. It included both private and public lands and different forest management practices. On the West Coast, they found that projected forest biomass removal and use for bioenergy in any form will release more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than current forest management practices and most people assume that wood bioenergy will be carbon-neutral, because the forest re-grows and there’s also the chance of protecting forests from carbon emissions due to wildfire. But the research showed that the emissions from these activities proved to be more than the savings.The only exception to this was if forests in high fire-risk zones become weakened due to insect outbreaks or drought, which impairs their growth and carbon sequestration, as well as setting the stage for major fires then there is a chance of thinning for some bioenergy production which might result in lower emissions in such cases if several specific criteria are met.Till now there have been a lot of misconceptions about impacts of forest thinning, fire prevention and biofuels production as it relates to carbon emissions from forests but the main aim of the researchers is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, producing bioenergy from forests will be counterproductive.The study examined thousands of forest plots with detailed data and observations, considering 27 parameters, including the role of forest fire, emissions savings from bioenergy use, wood product substitution, insect infestations, forest thinning, energy and processes needed to produce biofuels, and many others. It looked at four basic things: “business as usual”; forest management primarily for fire prevention purposes; additional levels of harvest to prevent fire but also make such operations more economically feasible; and significant bioenergy production while contributing to fire reduction. However, they don’t believe that an optimal efficiency of production is actually possible in real-world conditions and with levels of efficiency having more realistic, they project that the use of these forests for high bioenergy production would increase carbon emissions 17 percent from their current level and about 98 percent of the forests in this region according to the estimation is carbon dioxide sink, which means that even with existing management approaches they sequester more carbon than they release to the atmosphere.
Plans for greenhouse gas reduction call for up to 10 percent lower emissions by 2020, and forest-derived fuels are now seen as a carbon-neutral solution to reducing energy emissions, as suggested by the researchers . However, this study suggests that increases in harvest volume on the West Coast, for any reason, will instead result in average increases in emissions above current levels.
[via:Oregon State University]
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