The earth remained in
carbon equilibrium for millennia, until humans seriously disrupted that
delicate balance.
A few people plodding about the place did not interfere with
that stability until a couple of centuries ago when man discovered how to
unlock the carbon deposits the earth had squirrelled away over billions of
years.
About two hundred years ago we stumbled upon oil and as the
decade passed with build machines of every variety powered by internal combustion
engines and armed with those we assaulted the world’s forests.
Like smoking to the human body, it was a direct attack on
the world’s lungs and deforestation is now one of the key reasons we are now
facing this profit and growth driven-dilemma of climate change.
The latest issue of The
Conversation has a report on the recent UN Climate Summit in New York a new
forest agreement — the New York Declaration on Forests, headed: “Stopping global deforestation will take more than words”, but appears to hold little
hope of it making much difference.
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