• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Biden Approves $8B Oil Extraction Plan in Ecologically Sensitive Alaska March 14, 2023
U.S. Solar Developers Scramble after Silicon Valley Bank Collapse March 14, 2023
$30.9B Price Tag Makes Trans Mountain Pipeline a ‘Catastrophic Boondoggle’ March 14, 2023
UN Buys Tanker, But Funding Gap Could Scuttle Plan to Salvage Oil from ‘Floating Time Bomb’ March 9, 2023
Biden Cuts Fossil Subsidies, But Oil and Gas Still Lines Up for Billions March 9, 2023
Next
Prev

Protect the Boreal as ‘Lung of the World’, Op-Ed Urges Canada

February 27, 2022
Reading time: 3 minutes

Miguel V/Wikimedia Commons

Miguel V/Wikimedia Commons

16
SHARES
 

The boreal forest is the “lung of the world” and Canada must become its most committed steward, rather than vying with Russia and Brazil for deforestation “accolades,” says author and activist Ben Rawlence.

The boreal is “the most critical terrestrial engine that sets the terms for much of life on Earth,” writes Rawlence, author of The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth, in a recent op-ed in the Globe and Mail.

  • Be among the first to read The Energy Mix Weekender
  • A brand new weekly digest containing exclusive and essential climate stories from around the world.
  • The Weekender:The climate news you need.
Subscribe

“More than the Amazon, the boreal is truly the lung of the world,” Rawlence says. So Canada, as home to one third of this all-important forest, holds an “awesome responsibility” to all the rest of life on Earth. “Halting forest degradation and deforestation was one of the key planks of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s plan for keeping global warming below two degrees,” writes Rawlence, emphasizing Canada’s duty to protect the forest.

Amongst the “ecosystem services” provided by the boreal forest, and forests in general, is that of literal rainmakers. “Trees fire volatile chemicals into the atmosphere that bond to water molecules, making them heavier so they fall as rain,” writes Rawlence.

Forests are also conveyor belts for moisture, via the transpiration cycle that allow trees to suck up rain through their root systems and release water vapour through their needles. “A contiguous forest can transport water in a ‘flying river’ over thousands of miles; as the rain falls, it is transpired again into the air and moved along further inland.”

The trillion trees of the boreal forest also work together to help the winds blow. Rawlence cites research which shows how the warming of boreal forests in summer, and the consequent heat differential between them and the tundra, drive the jet stream. 

And then there is the treasure trove of medicinal and other boons to be found in the boreal forest, gifts long known to First Nations, and slowly being discovered by western science.

But now, “the southern reaches of the boreal are burning up,” Rawlence warns, and as the treeline jumps north, some Canadians might be able to move with the forest. “Most of us elsewhere, however, will not have that option.”

So “if Canada seeks to take meaningful steps on climate, then protecting the boreal forest and the extraordinary functions and services it provides to people everywhere should be top of the list.”

But “at present, Canada vies with Russia and Brazil for the accolade of highest forest degradation rate—much of it going for toilet paper in the USA.”

Rawlence concludes that Canada has much to learn about forest stewardship from First Nations, like the Anishinaabeg custodians of the Pimachiowin Aki forest on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. A UNESCO world heritage site since 2018, the forest park now “showcases how to harvest the bounty of the forest—including burning it sometimes—but without cutting it down and chewing up the precious soil with machines.”



in Biodiversity & Habitat, Canada, Drought, Famine & Wildfires, First Peoples, Forests & Deforestation, Water

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

U.S. Bureau of Land Management/flickr
Oil & Gas

Biden Approves $8B Oil Extraction Plan in Ecologically Sensitive Alaska

March 14, 2023
64
EcoAnalytics
Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion

Canadians Want Strong Emissions Cap Regulations, Not More Missed Targets

March 14, 2023
69
U.S. National Transportation Safety Board/flickr
Pipelines / Rail Transport

$30.9B Price Tag Makes Trans Mountain Pipeline a ‘Catastrophic Boondoggle’

March 14, 2023
134

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

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

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Behrat/Wikimedia Commons

Hawaii Firm Turns Home Water Heaters into Grid Batteries

March 14, 2023
292
U.S. National Transportation Safety Board/flickr

$30.9B Price Tag Makes Trans Mountain Pipeline a ‘Catastrophic Boondoggle’

March 14, 2023
134
David Dodge, Green Energy Futures/flickr

U.S. Solar Developers Scramble after Silicon Valley Bank Collapse

March 14, 2023
97
Rebecca Bollwitt/flickr

Fossils Stay ‘Oily’, Gibsons Sues Big Oil, U.S. Clean Energy Booms, EU Pushes Fossil Phaseout, and Fukushima Disaster was ‘No Accident’

March 14, 2023
70
EcoAnalytics

Canadians Want Strong Emissions Cap Regulations, Not More Missed Targets

March 14, 2023
69
U.S. Bureau of Land Management/flickr

Biden Approves $8B Oil Extraction Plan in Ecologically Sensitive Alaska

March 14, 2023
64

Recent Posts

Raysonho/wikimedia commons

Purolator Pledges $1B to Electrify Last-Mile Delivery

March 14, 2023
47
United Nations

UN Buys Tanker, But Funding Gap Could Scuttle Plan to Salvage Oil from ‘Floating Time Bomb’

March 10, 2023
89
Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

Biden Cuts Fossil Subsidies, But Oil and Gas Still Lines Up for Billions

March 10, 2023
171
jasonwoodhead23/flickr

First Nation Scorches Imperial Oil, Alberta Regulator Over Toxic Leak

March 8, 2023
362
MarcusObal/wikimedia commons

No Climate Risk Targets for Banks, New Guides for Green Finance as 2 Federal Agencies Issue New Rules

March 8, 2023
233
FMSC/Flickr

Millions Face Food Insecurity as Horn of Africa Braces for Worst Drought Ever

March 8, 2023
241
Next Post
John Carver/geograph.uk

New EU Toll System to Encourage Green Trucking

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}