• About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Guest Post
  • Contact
Sunday, June 26, 2022
  • Login
World News Times
  • Home
  • News
    • Europe
      • France
      • Germany
      • Russia
      • United Kingdom
    • Americas
      • United States
      • Canada
      • Mexico
    • Asia
      • China
      • India
      • Japan
      • Pakistan
    • Australia
    • Middle East
    • Africa
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Environment
  • Sports
  • Tech
  • Videos
No Result
View All Result
World News Times
  • Home
  • News
    • Europe
      • France
      • Germany
      • Russia
      • United Kingdom
    • Americas
      • United States
      • Canada
      • Mexico
    • Asia
      • China
      • India
      • Japan
      • Pakistan
    • Australia
    • Middle East
    • Africa
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Environment
  • Sports
  • Tech
  • Videos
No Result
View All Result
World News Times
No Result
View All Result
Home News Americas United States

Wildfires are ravaging forests set aside to soak up greenhouse gases.

WNTimes by WNTimes
August 23, 2021
in United States
A A
0
132
SHARES
877
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The wildfires in the American West are burning vast expanses of specially protected forests — those that are part of carbon-offset projects meant to counterbalance the carbon dioxide pollution being pumped into the atmosphere by human activity.

Carbon-offset programs, which are designed to fight climate change, typically pay landowners to manage their land in ways that store carbon. Usually, that means paying landowners to not chop down trees.

Wildfires, however, don’t respect those agreements.

An estimated 153,000 acres of forests that are part of California’s carbon-offset project have burned so far this summer, according to CarbonPlan, a nonprofit climate-research organization. Three projects have been affected. In Oregon, a quarter of the Klamath East project, or close to 100,000 acres, has burned in the Bootleg Fire since early July.

“The worst fire season in Western U.S. history is going on,” said Danny Cullenward, the policy director of CarbonPlan. “That story is just crashing headfirst into some of the big bets that policymakers and private companies have made about the role of forest carbon as a climate solution. What we are seeing is, a bunch of projects are on fire.”

Forests store carbon by pulling carbon dioxide out of the air and locking it away in tree trunks and other growth. When a tree burns, though, that carbon is released back into the atmosphere.

California’s carbon offset program works by paying landowners if they commit to managing their land for 100 years in ways that will store more carbon than they would have otherwise.

Companies that want to offset their own emissions of greenhouse gases can then buy credits that represent the additional carbon being stored in forests like these.

An official with the California Air Resources Board, which oversees the state’s carbon-offset program, declined to comment on CarbonPlan’s findings.

The program has stirred up controversy, including criticism that credits have been overvalued and that some landowners have taken advantage of the system by accepting payments in return for protecting forests that wouldn’t have been cut down. But experts say the wildfires have highlighted one of the main weaknesses in the program: the small size of the so-called buffer pool.

Buffer pool is a bureaucratic term for a simple idea: It’s an insurance policy against disasters like fires. In effect, carbon-offset projects also protect a small percentage of extra land so that if disaster strikes one project, that extra pool of land — with contributions from many different projects — can make up for losses.

But too many fires mean that the insurance policy might not be enough.

“If the current rate of fire loss continues, the buffer pool will not be sufficient — and that loss will get greater with climate change,” said Barbara Haya, director of the Berkeley Carbon Trading Program at the University of California, Berkeley.

This month, Microsoft said offsets that the company had purchased were burning. BP also purchased offsets in a large project that is now burning, according to a report by the Washington Department of Natural Resources. (In an email, a BP official said the company doesn’t rely on carbon offsets to meet its emissions reduction targets.)

CarbonPlan’s estimates are based on maps of the projects enrolled in California’s cap-and-trade program overlaid with the active fire perimeters tracked by the federal government. Three additional carbon-offset projects are near large wildfires, according to CarbonPlan.

Source: The New York Times

Related Posts

United States

Century-Old State Laws Could Determine Where Abortion Is Legal

June 26, 2022
United States

Abortion access is shifting rapidly one day after the overturning of Roe.

June 26, 2022
United States

Biden Signs Gun Bill Into Law, Ending Years of Stalemate

June 26, 2022
United States

For Conservative Christians, the End of Roe Was a Spiritual Victory

June 26, 2022
United States

Commando Network Coordinates Flow of Weapons in Ukraine, Officials Say

June 26, 2022
United States

A New Task for Biden: Readying Allies for a Long Conflict in Ukraine

June 26, 2022

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Premium Content

Reports Say That Israeli Spyware Has Been Linked To 50,000 Phone Numbers Worldwide

Reports Say That Israeli Spyware Has Been Linked To 50,000 Phone Numbers Worldwide

July 20, 2021
Covid-19

7 Future HR Trends Post Covid-19

September 12, 2021
Monkey B Virus

China Reports Its First Death from the Monkey B Virus

October 10, 2021
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest

Amir Tsarfati: Breaking News

February 22, 2022

Female jockey Eszter Jeles dead at 21: ‘Hero’ rider suffers fatal injuries in horror mid-race fall

September 20, 2021

Jim Cramer: China's Evergrande 'contagion' stops at U.S. borders

November 21, 2021

Tammy Richards Lawsuit Against LoanDepot

September 23, 2021
Reports Say That Israeli Spyware Has Been Linked To 50,000 Phone Numbers Worldwide

Reports Say That Israeli Spyware Has Been Linked To 50,000 Phone Numbers Worldwide

0
lockdown

No lockdown even though the cases are high

0
cyber-surveillance

How To Become A Successful Business Consultant In The Internet Marketing Industry

0

The Ultimate Business Consultant Resources

0

Indonesia president to visit Ukraine, Russia on peace-building mission

June 26, 2022

Gareth Bale confirms MLS move to Los Angeles FC

June 26, 2022

Fans congratulate Man Utd’s ‘greatest signing of decade’ after Prem announcement

June 26, 2022

By ending national abortion rights, Supreme Court lights a fire in the 2022 election

June 26, 2022

Latest News

Africa

Indonesia president to visit Ukraine, Russia on peace-building mission

June 26, 2022
Japan

Gareth Bale confirms MLS move to Los Angeles FC

June 26, 2022
Sports

Fans congratulate Man Utd’s ‘greatest signing of decade’ after Prem announcement

June 26, 2022
News

By ending national abortion rights, Supreme Court lights a fire in the 2022 election

June 26, 2022
United States

Century-Old State Laws Could Determine Where Abortion Is Legal

June 26, 2022
Australia

Vehicle located following bikie shooting in Melbourne

June 26, 2022
World News Times

World News Times is a site specialized in global news for all regions and continents such as Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa, we offer you exclusive and certified news from the largest reliable sources in the world.

Categories

  • Africa
  • Australia
  • Business
  • Canada
  • China
  • Energy
  • Environment
  • Europe
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Internet Marketing
  • Israeli Spyware
  • Japan
  • Latest News
  • Lockdown
  • Mexico
  • Middle East
  • News
  • Norway
  • Norway
  • Pakistan
  • Politics
  • Russia
  • Social Impact
  • Space
  • Sports
  • Technology
  • Ukraine
  • Uncategorized
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • Videos
  • Worldwide

Recent News

  • Indonesia president to visit Ukraine, Russia on peace-building mission
  • Gareth Bale confirms MLS move to Los Angeles FC
  • Fans congratulate Man Utd’s ‘greatest signing of decade’ after Prem announcement
  • By ending national abortion rights, Supreme Court lights a fire in the 2022 election
  • Century-Old State Laws Could Determine Where Abortion Is Legal
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Guest Post
  • Contact

© 2021 World News Times.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Europe
      • France
      • Germany
      • Russia
      • United Kingdom
    • Americas
      • United States
      • Canada
      • Mexico
    • Asia
      • China
      • India
      • Japan
      • Pakistan
    • Australia
    • Middle East
    • Africa
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Environment
  • Sports
  • Tech
  • Videos

© 2021 World News Times.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In