(12/17/2007) Researchers have confirmed that converting
peat forests for oil palm plantations results in a large net release of carbon dioxide, indicating industry claims that palm oil helps fight climate change are unfounded, at least when plantations are established in peatlands.
Indonesia announced a two year moratorium on granting new concessions of rainforest and
peat forest for clearing in Oslo, Norway, however concessions already granted to companies will not be stopped.
Not exact matches
If we can conserve that
forest or wetlands or grasslands that are being lost and emitting CO2 into the atmosphere, we are also conserving habitat
for the wildlife of the Earth; so Congo basin, Amazon rainforest, the wetlands of Southeast Asia, the
peat forests of Southeast Asia and on and on — and also the Alaskan frontier.
Yesterday, Indonesia pledged to cease all deforestation activities
for two years after Norway agreed to inject $ 1 billion into the effort to save the Southeast Asian country's
forests and
peat lands.
Concerns about
peat fires worsening climate change Mike Flannigan, director of the University of Alberta's Western Partnership
for Wildland Fire Science who was not involved with the analysis, said it's important to note that wildfires are a part of northern boreal
forests» ecology.
Raging
forest fires are releasing carbon that has been buried in
peat for thousands of years, inching the world closer to breaching warming targets
In the study, published on October 14 in PLOS ONE, Rutgers researchers found that the density of Bornean orangutans is almost two times greater in an Indonesian
peat - swamp
forest — just 39 miles from similar surroundings where orangutans must survive on thousands of calories less each day
for most of the year.
The researchers also found that certification did not affect fire occurrence in these plantations or the amount of carbon - rich
peat swamp
forests cleared and drained
for oil palm.
When the
peat fires, almost all of which are intentionally set to clear
forests for palm oil plantations, began this year, the president broke with past leadership, expressed his dismay and threatened to sanction palm oil company PT Tempirai Palm Resources after he paid a surprise visit to its land concession in South Sumatra where fires are raging (ClimateWire, Sept. 14).
My research indicates that the Siberian
peat moss, Arctic tundra, and methal hydrates (frozen methane at the bottom of the ocean) all have an excellent chance of melting and releasing their stored co2.Recent methane concentration figures also hit the news last week, and methane has increased after a long time being steady.The
forests of north america are drying out and are very susceptible to massive insect infestations and wildfires, and the massive die offs - 25 % of total
forests, have begun.And, the most recent stories on the Amazon forecast that with the change in rainfall patterns one third of the Amazon will dry and turn to grassland, thereby creating a domino cascade effect
for the rest of the Amazon.With co2 levels risng faster now that the oceans have reached carrying capacity, the oceans having become also more acidic, and the looming threat of a North Atlanic current shutdown (note the recent terrible news on salinity upwelling levels off Greenland,) and the change in cold water upwellings, leading to far less biomass
for the fish to feed upon, all lead to the conclusion we may not have to worry about NASA completing its inventory of near earth objects greater than 140 meters across by 2026 (Recent Benjamin Dean astronomy lecture here in San Francisco).
I was doing my damnedest to help save the lives of the wild orangutan living in the
peat forests of Borneo when I caught wind of another man doing the same in Sumatra,
for the tiger.
But when
peat forests are drained and burned
for oil palm and other agricultural plantations, they release massive amounts of greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere.
In contrast, RED would be more effective in terms of its conservation impact if payments were extended to all remaining carbon - rich tropical
forests, including lowland
peat swamp
forests, the preferred habitat
for dense populations of orangutans, and if the construction of new roads was halted.
Carbon emissions are likely to increase, the study predicted, as most future
forest clearance is planned
for areas with deep
peat soils.
In Indonesia,
for example, where oil palm covers approximately 10.5 million hectares of land, companies have vowed to halt deforestation and the draining of
peat swamps, thereby certifying their products as not having contributed to the destruction of
forests or increased greenhouse gas emissions.
1 Positive 1.1 Carbon cycle feedbacks 1.1.1 Arctic methane release 1.1.1.1 Methane release from melting permafrost
peat bogs 1.1.1.2 Methane release from hydrates 1.1.2 Abrupt increases in atmospheric methane 1.1.3 Decomposition 1.1.4
Peat decomposition 1.1.5 Rainforest drying 1.1.6
Forest fires 1.1.7 Desertification 1.1.8 CO2 in the oceans 1.1.9 Modelling results 1.1.9.1 Implications
for climate policy 1.2 Cloud feedback 1.3 Gas release 1.4 Ice - albedo feedback 1.5 Water vapor feedback 2 Negative 2.1 Carbon cycle 2.1.1 Le Chatelier's principle 2.1.2 Chemical weathering 2.1.3 Net Primary Productivity 2.2 Lapse rate 2.3 Blackbody radiation
ancillary benefits of preserving biodiversity (i.e. orangutans live in
peat forests), watersheds, and other ecosystem services (some of which may also result in payments
for landowners in the future)
Greenpeace, which warns of an imminent «climate bomb» due to the destruction of rich
forests and
peat bogs that currently serve as a massive carbon sink, reports groups such as the World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, and Flora and Fauna International have joined them in calling
for an end to the conversion of
forests to croplands
for the production of biofuels
Concerning the possibility of multiple dry months
for peat forest regions on Sumatra and Borneo what is most noteworthy is a lingering El Niño state cold water SST anomaly around these two Indonesian isles (as can be seen below):
But this is the really short version in regards to climate change: When you chop down the
forests grown on
peat and drain the land to depths sufficient
for oil palm cultivation, the soil starts oxidizing and releasing massive amounts of CO2.
The model was then used to create a number of scenarios to predict the future impacts of
forest clearing and
peat burning
for oil palm conversion.
Deforestation,
forest degradation, and clearing
peat account
for an estimated 4.3 to 5.5 Gt CO2eq per year.
That is because a healthy
forest soaks up carbon from the atmosphere and stores it as wood,
peat and soil carbon, some of it
for decades, some
for millennia.
In 2015, after months of
forest fires and choking pollution levels, the Indonesian government identified dozens of companies responsible
for millions of hectares of torched
forest and
peat land.