One interesting bit of news is that Canada is removing its forests from the Kyoto carbon calculation as
the federal government has decided against using Canada's forests in the calculations for totalling up the country's greenhouse-gas emissions.So the Kyoto treaty apparently lets you practice Enron-type accounting when totaling up your co2 emissions.
The reason:
"The problem is that ultimately we're going to have to include our forests because forests and ecosystems can be bigger emitters (of greenhouse gas) than industry," said Brinkman.
In 2003, Brinkman said, forest fires in Europe, the United States, Australia and Canada sent more emissions into the atmosphere globally than any other source, including industry.
Brinkman, a recognized specialist in sustainable forest management, is married to Joyce Murray, who is contesting the federal Liberal nomination in Vancouver Quadra riding.
Yes, you read that right: forests "sent more emissions into the atmosphere globally than any other source, including industry."
But don't worry it can all still be blamed on Global Warming and the general catch-all of "climate change" (ie it isn't getting provably warmer, but were se:
Louise Comeau, a climate-change expert in Ottawa, said Canada had always assumed it would realize a greenhouse-gas benefit from managed forests.
But she said damage caused by climate change has turned that assumption on its head. "We've got more trees being destroyed than we have growing, and so our forests are turning into a source of emissions as opposed to a sink for carbon."
Forests account for 402 million hectares of Canada's 909-million-hectare land area. Managed forests take up 240 million hectares.
Canada, a nice place if you like trees, but it forests are an evil source of arboreal CO2 emissions, exempted from Kyoto, so environmentally conscious visitors beware.
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