Comment by hutattedonmyarm
7 hours ago
> The losses are concentrated in tropical moist broadleaf forests in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, and parts of West Africa, driven by deforestation and forest degradation
If I read this correctly: No, forests are not suddenly emitting carbon. People are just felling enough trees and treating them badly enough, that their forests are now dying faster than they are regrowing
What horrendous title. Quick! They are emitting carbon! Cut the forests down!
While technically correct, I think your comment is disingenuous and distracts from the issue.
You're right that the forests themselves are not emitting carbon. However, human deforestation is causing the sequestered carbon in the trees to be removed from the forest and that is also reducing the forest's ability to absorb carbon.
TFA
> their forests are now dying faster than they are regrowing
> ...driven by deforestation and forest degradation.
Due largely to deforestation caused by humans.
A search for "logging in congos protected forest" will reveal numerous articles on this:
> Despite the ban on new industrial logging, the DRC has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world, losing 490,000 hectares (1.2m acres) of primary rainforest in 2020, according to Global Forest Watch.
There is a top level comment taking the article's wording as meaning the trees have evolved to emit carbon because of the confusing wording. I think it's a very helpful comment to clarify what the article is trying to say, not a distraction from it.
I’m not sure I understand why the headline is wrong.
Whatever the reason might be, the point is that African forests have gone from absorbing more carbon than they release, to releasing more carbon than they absorb.
IOW, they have become net emitters as opposed to net absorbers.
One could argue the forest itself hasn't started emitting carbon, its the loss of biomass due to clearing that has had a net reduction in total biomass.