Canada’s Forests Put Out More CO2 Than Oxygen

Canada is a huge and sparsely populated country famous for its stunning scenery, wide open plains, and huge stretches of unspoilt forests as big as some countries.

Altogether the country boasts in excess of 1.2 million square miles of forests that are considered to be the “lungs of North America”

Some recent studies now have scientists very concerned about the overall health of Canada’s giant forest tracts.

Studies show that the country’s forests are fighting a battle against an ever growing army of serious problems that threaten their very existence.

Changes in the climate are causing a series of infestations from insects that are harming the trees.

In addition the warming atmosphere is producing a seemingly never-ending string of forest fires.

All of this means that the trees that used to produce huge amounts of nice clean breathable oxygen now produce more C02 than the gases that the planet actually needs.

A full seven percent of the world’s trees are found in Canada, making this “negative equity” of carbon dioxide output a concern not just for Canada but the rest of the world.

The changes in world climate are causing the forests of North America to dry out.

Dry vegetation and dead leaves on the ground as well as dried branches and leaves on the trees have made them a tinderbox that is very easy to ignite.

It is estimated that Canadian forests hold over 180 billion tons of carbon, representing more than a quarter of a century’s entire world carbon dioxide output.

If huge forests were to go into uncontrolled burn the effect on the planet’s atmosphere could be devastating.

Many insects are flourishing in the new climate conditions including the pine beetle, which has always flourished in the evergreen forests during the summertime.

They are then killed off in vast numbers during Canada’s extreme harsh cold winters.

But over the last few years Canada’s winter months have warmed considerably allowing the pine beetle to survive in much greater numbers and to multiply at an alarming rate during the now much longer mild temperature months.

The pine beetle is small but it has a devastating effect on trees, killing off thousands of square miles of forest that has no natural defence against these insect tree killers.