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Old Growth Forests Are Valuable Carbon Sinks

Contrary to 40 years of conventional wisdom, a new analysis published in the journal Nature suggests that old growth forests are usually "carbon sinks" - they continue to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and mitigate climate change for centuries.

Image
©iStockphoto/Robert Koopmans
A west coast British Columbia old-growth rainforest.

However, these old growth forests around the world are not protected by international treaties and have been considered of no significance in the national "carbon budgets" as outlined in the Kyoto Protocol. That perspective was largely based on findings of a single study from the late 1960s which had become accepted theory, and scientists now say it needs to be changed.

"Carbon accounting rules for forests should give credit for leaving old growth forest intact," researchers from Oregon State University and several other institutions concluded in their report. "Much of this carbon, even soil carbon, will move back to the atmosphere if these forests are disturbed."

Bizarro Earth

Heat and drought killing Cyprus' forests

The island's ongoing drought is killing trees, which are increasingly drying up, threatening serious ecological damages.

The Forestry Department is showing increased concerns about the large number of trees that are drying up. The best hope is that the weather conditions will soon change.

Meteor

Sky explosions? : Bangaloreans in India speculate about mysterious boom and rattling

Bangalore: The city was abuzz with rumours on Friday morning about a low intensity earthquake in parts of the city after residents experienced a mysterious sound and rattling.

Speculations were rather specific and even strangely consistent: that a quake measuring 1.5 on the Richter scale hit Kengeri, HSR Layout and Yelahanka at about 8.30 a.m. These were, however, quickly put to rest by the meteorological centre here, which said it was more likely a quarry blast.

Cloud Lightning

Hurricane Ike wears itself out beating up on Texas



Ike benches
©CNN
Park benches are strewn about in downtown Houston Saturday during Hurricane Ike.

Galveston, Texas -- Rescuers in Galveston, Texas, were going door-to-door Saturday to check on the estimated 20,000 people who failed to flee Hurricane Ike, which has slowed to tropical storm status.

Cloud Lightning

Hurricane Ike pounds Texas coast

Galveston - Hurricane Ike bore down on the Texas coast late Friday with driving rain, crashing waves and fierce gusts, threatening to rattle the skyscrapers of America's fourth-largest city, shut down the heart of the U.S. oil industry and obliterate towns already flooded with waist-high water.

Though nearly 1 million people evacuated coastal communities in the days leading up to the storm, tens of thousands ignored calls to leave and decided to tough it out. But as wind-whipped floodwaters began crashing into coastal homes, many changed their minds. Galveston fire crews rescued more than 300 people who were walking through flooded streets, clutching clothes and other belongings as they tried to wade to safety.

Umbrella

Texas prepares for an ominous Hurricane Ike

Authorities in the Houston area and along the Southeast Texas Gulf Coast ordered hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate Thursday as Hurricane Ike lumbered toward the coast and threatened to grow even stronger.

Ambulance

With Ike, size matters for killer storm surge

Hurricane Ike's gargantuan size - not its strength - will likely push an extra large storm surge inland in a region already prone to it, experts said Thursday.

Cloud Lightning

Nepal: Eight more die as diarrhea turns into epidemic in flood relief camps

At least eight more persons including three children who were displaced by the Koshi floods and taking shelter in various government run camps in Sunsari and Saptari district, have died of high fever and diarrhea in the past 24 hours.

The Himalayan Times quoted Sunsari District Police Office as saying that five-year-old Nitesh Kumar Kamat and Mohamad Usman, 50 - both Haripur-8
residents - died of fever in Sunsari on Sunday. Babita Rai, Jasira Khatun, Sitadevi Hindawal and Taphail Khan of Haripur-2 had died of dysentery Saturday night.

Magic Wand

Insanity! Citing faith and fate, some choose to ride out Ike

SURFSIDE BEACH, Texas - At first, even the threat of "certain death" was not enough to persuade Bobby Taylor to flee this small town directly in the path of Hurricane Ike.

Red Flag

Cyprus: Water Crisis Worsens



dry dam
©Margo Aldridge
Dry: The Arminou Dam

Cypriots have been warned that the island is running dry and that careful conservation of water is now even more important, as it will take two more months before additional sources are available.