Good news about global warming

[rustled]

Good news for those concerned about global warming and CO2:

... nature is finding a way to heal from the devastation of British Columbia's mountain pine beetle outbreak.
...global warming is making B.C. forests grow faster and the trees are taking in more carbon dioxide, the gas associated with the globe's steadily climbing temperatures...
... forests are recovering, and oxygen output due to speedy growth caused by climate change will soon compensate for the carbon emitted by rotting trees. ...

http://www.castanet.net/news/BC/162935/ ... rests-heal

So higher levels of CO2, produced by rotting beetle-killed trees, actually help these forests regenerate themselves more quickly. Interesting, huh?

[alfred2]

mother nature knows how to heal herself,no need for the scare mongers like the ndp etc.

[The Green Barbarian]

Weird how nature works like that. Just so weird. This has to be the first time ever, in recorded history. Otherwise, the fear-mongering Eco-cultists would have told us, right? I hope that the NDP didn't waste too much paper printing up those Leap Manifestos, as it no longer seems relevant.

[Jx3]

I hope that the NDP didn't waste too much paper printing up those Leap Manifestos, as it no longer seems relevant.

Sorry GB, going to have to disagree with you on this one. The "Leap Manifesto" (steaming pile of crap that it is) was never relevant in the first place.

[Glacier]

Why did they show a picture of cedar trees!? Hey Castanet, the article is about pine beetle, not cedar beetle!

[Omnitheo]

Clearly everyone misinterpreted the article. Essentially the dead trees killed by the pine beetles were releasing more CO2 and contributing to climate change. The warmer climate though has allowed the new trees, not encumbered by the beetles to grow faster than normal and to reduce the CO2 output from dead and rotting trees, overcoming it by 2020 to be back on track to producing more O2 than CO2 and becoming natural carbon sinks again

"Even by 2020, it means the positive effects of climate change more than compensate for the negative impact of the pine beetle outbreak," said Arora, who led the study with a team of researchers at the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, at the University of Victoria.

To be clear, the study authors are not suggesting climate change itself is positive. But Arora says it is helpful for forest managers and others to know how B.C. trees are responding.

"Climate change is, of course, not good," he said. "Overall, CO2 is still going up. [But] trees and oceans are helping, to buffer us from that effect."

So in effect:
1: Pine Beetles killed a lot of trees, causing forests to produce less 02 and more CO2
2: The increase in temperature has allowed new trees to grow faster
3: The faster growth will overcome the effects of the CO2 produced by Pine Beetle Ravaged forests by 2020

[The Green Barbarian]

Clearly everyone misinterpreted the article.

or more accurately, you are deliberately misinterpreting it.

[Omnitheo]

Please find something in the study that conflicts with what I said.

Otherwise don't accuse me of misinterpreting unless you can actually back your statement up.

[LoneWolf_53]

Weird how nature works like that. Just so weird. This has to be the first time ever, in recorded history. Otherwise, the fear-mongering Eco-cultists would have told us, right? I hope that the NDP didn't waste too much paper printing up those Leap Manifestos, as it no longer seems relevant.

With all due respect, not all concerns people have are fear mongering, and where climate is concerned in my opinion you've gone to the fullest extreme in the other direction, basically telling yourself everything is just peachy.

I have a son working in the Arctic, the place where this winter there was 20,000 square miles less ice.

Another real issue is red tides which have become far more prevalent, extending into areas they were never a problem before, and basically killing everything in its path, from sea lions, to fish, whales, and what have you, not to mention it makes a body somewhat leery of eating seafood.

A documentary I just watched a few days back showed how a recent one stretched all along the Pacific coast to the northern tip of Vancouver Island.

In Australia over 90% of the coral reefs there are exhibiting irrefutable signs of dying.

At the rate Arctic ice is melting the oceans will continue to rise and there will be a lot of densely populated coastal cities under water.

I'd call these real concerns, and hardly coming under the label fear mongering, and some beetle killed forests rejuvenating themselves is great news, but hardly negates other concerns, particularly when rain forest areas are being wiped out in the name of greed, at an alarming rate.

Do you think these new growth beetle kill forests are going to make up for all the other damage done to the planet at the hands of man? I don't.

People are destroying the planet, and if nothing else that was glaringly evident during 9/11 when the grounding of planes for several days resulted in an astonishing improvement in air quality that could be measured, and was.

Fat chance that people will give up fossil fuel driven air travel though.

Oh and for the record I'm not NDP, nor particularly tied to any other party either, but I do tend to trust what I see with my own eyes.

[Glacier]

At the rate Arctic ice is melting the oceans will continue to rise and there will be a lot of densely populated coastal cities under water.

I agree with some of your points, but you're mistaken here. sea ice does do anything to sea level rise. In fact, ice is less dense than water, so as it melts, it drops sea levels. Now, what does increase sea level is thermal expansion (water loses density above 4C).

[rustled]

Clearly everyone misinterpreted the article.

Really? How about you

Please find something in the study that conflicts with what I said.

Otherwise don't accuse me of misinterpreting unless you can actually back your statement up.

[Omnitheo]

Apologies Glacier, by everyone I guess I meant GB, Alfred, jx3, and rustled.

[Omnitheo]

I agree with some of your points, but you're mistaken here. sea ice does do anything to sea level rise. In fact, ice is less dense than water, so as it melts, it drops sea levels. Now, what does increase sea level is thermal expansion (water loses density above 4C).

In addition to melting sea ice, there are also melting glaciers (which you may be familiar with). These account for the majority of the world's fresh water, and when they melt they are most certainly adding the the volume of water in the seas.

[rustled]

...but I do tend to trust what I see with my own eyes.

You're making assumptions about the meaning of what you see. Long-term effects, relevance of human activity, etc.

We don't always fully understand what we see.

[alfred2]

you are full of it om, i did not misintrepeted the article, you owe us an apology.