Republican’s Climate Solution: Clear-Cut the Rain Forest

Typical
Republican’s Climate Solution: Clear-Cut the Rain Forest
May 26, 2011, 4:11 pm
By JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF

Quote :

Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, needs to hit the science books, forestry experts suggest.
European Pressphoto AgencyRepresentative Dana Rohrabacher

They reached that conclusion after hearing Mr. Rohrabacher declare during a Congressional hearing on Wednesday that clear-cutting the world’s rain forests might eliminate the production of greenhouse gases responsible for climate change.

On the witness stand was Todd Stern, the Obama administration’s climate change envoy, who was questioned on whether the nation’s climate policy should focus on reducing the more than 80 percent of carbon emissions produced by the natural world in the form of decaying plant matter.

Quote :

“Is there some thought being given to subsidizing the clearing of rain forests in order for some countries to eliminate that production of greenhouse gases?”

the congressman asked Mr. Stern, according to Politico.

“Or would people be supportive of cutting down older trees in order to plant younger trees as a means to prevent this disaster from happening?” he continued.

Forestry experts were dumbfounded by Mr. Rohrabacher’s line of questioning, noting that the world’s forests currently absorb far more carbon dioxide than they emit — capturing roughly one-third of all man-made emissions and helping mitigate climate change.

“He’s seriously confused,” said Oliver Phillips, a professor of geography at the University of Leeds in Britain and an expert on terrestrial carbon storage. “He’s just got half of the equation. Natural things decay, of course, but they also grow.”

The idea that cutting down forests would result in a net reduction of emissions is “crazy,” Dr Phillips added. “The need is to reduce deforestation.”

Beverly Law, a professor of forest science at Oregon State University, found another hole in Mr. Rohrabacher’s logic. Roughly 75 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions from the natural world come not from above-ground biomass, but from the soil, she said. “You don’t even want to give this guy another wacky idea, but he forgot about soil,” Dr. Law said.

Wow. Science FAIL.

Heretic wrote:

Wow. Science FAIL.

He must have taken the same science course as his hero, St Ronnie Reagan.......

Quote :

"Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources."

"The American Petroleum Institute filed suit against the EPA [and] charged that the agency was suppressing a scientific study for fear it might be misinterpreted ... The suppressed study reveals that 80 percent of air pollution comes not from chimneys and auto exhaust pipes, but from plants and trees."
Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, in 1979

"If you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all."

"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do."
1981

"A tree is a tree. How many more do you have to look at?"
1966, opposing expansion of Redwood National Park as governor of California

"All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk."

"I have flown twice over Mt St. Helens out on our west coast. I'm not a scientist and I don't know the figures, but I have a suspicion that that one little mountain has probably released more sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere of the world than has been released in the last ten years of automobile driving or things of that kind that people are so concerned about."
1980. (Actually, Mount St. Helens, at its peak activity, emitted about 2,000 tons of sulfur dioxide per day, compared with 81,000 tons per day by cars.)

http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Quotes/Ronald_Reagan

Coming soon:The health benefits of toxic waste.....
Koch Bros. Conference: 'The Many Benefits of Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment'

Quote :

One of the latest front groups organized by the Koch Brothers has the lofty-yet-innocuous sounding name, “The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC),” and Think Progress has a photo of the ugly anti-scientific literature they’re distributing:At Koch’s ALEC Conference: ‘The Many Benefits Of Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment’