Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 2 November 2001:
Vol. 294. no. 5544, pp. 1012 - 1013
DOI: 10.1126/science.1065307
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Perspectives

CLIMATE CHANGE:
Storing Carbon on Land

R. J. Scholes and I. R. Noble

The terrestrial biosphere currently absorbs about a quarter of the anthropogenic carbon emissions. Can this carbon sink help to mitigate climate change? In their Perspective, Scholes and Noble argue that the world will not be worse off for having undertaken measures to promote land sinks, provided that steps to reduce emissions from fossil fuel combustion are not compromised and deforestation is avoided. Even if used to the maximum, however, these sinks will make only a minor difference to the final concentration at which atmospheric CO2 stabilizes. Emphasis must therefore be placed on reducing fossil fuel use and avoiding deforestation.

R. J. Scholes is at the CSIR Division of Water, Environment and Forest Technology, Box 395, Pretoria, South Africa. E-mail: bscholes{at}csir.co.za I. R. Noble is at the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting, Canberra, Australia. E-mail: ian.noble{at}greenhouse.crc.org.au

Read the Full Text

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)