Forests are an essential part of Earth's operating system. They reduce the buildup of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and land degradation by 30% each year. This slows global temperature increases and the resulting changes to the climate. In the U.S., forests take up 12% of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions annually and store the carbon long term in trees and soils.
It’s always amusing when people on lemmy complain about journalism while making it abundantly clear they didn’t actually read the article. Nobody said the science was in question. But the problem is, you’d have had to read the article to know that. Oh and for the record the article was written by the researchers themselves, Beverly Law, Professor Emeritus of Global Change Biology and Terrestrial Systems Science, Oregon State University and William Moomaw Professor Emeritus of International Environmental Policy, Tufts University. With contributions from Richard Birdsey, a former U.S. Forest Service carbon and climate scientist and current senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center.