Scientists Warn of Forest Loss

Even though people are increasingly settling in cities worldwide, they are depending on forests more than ever, and so the stakes in combating climate change are higher than ever, according to an article from The New York Times. Scientists have recently discovered that forests have been absorbing more than 25 percent of the carbon dioxide people are putting into the air, yet the environment is being altered so much by human activities that trees are dying off in record numbers across the planet. "At the same time that we're recognizing the potential great value of trees and forests in helping us deal with the excess carbon we're generating, we're starting to lose forests," Thomas W. Swetnam, an expert on forest history at the University of Arizona, told the Times. Scientists now fear that if trees were to die off on a sufficient scale, trees would not only cease sequestering carbon but would also spew large amounts of carbon back into the air.