I read an article in the Economist entitled, "Stop stop the chop chop." The article discusses ways to discourage deforestation and the resulting huge carbon emissions from decaying or burning trees. I always think of trees as a good counterbalance to carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, oil refineries, etc. Yet, I always need to remember that forests can be large carbon emitters as well, when people cut them down to clear areas for farming or to use lumber. Deforestation alone, results in the release of 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year--a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. Forests are disappearing at a rate of 5% per decade. One option discussed is as simple as paying developing countries to not chop down forests. Another suggestion is to use carbon certificates, which to me, sounds like a form of the cap and trade program. More polluting countries pay a premium so that other countries will reduce carbon emissions. Apparently, Brazil is one country that has realized that the value of the Amazon is worth more than cheap farmland; Brazil has reduced its deforestation by 30% in eight months. Some feel that putting forests on the free market may cause them to lose value as a 'commodity,' and result in lower prices to preserve forests. Yet, it seems like market incentives are exactly what many of these countries need, as market forces are what are prompting the deforestation to begin with--i.e. people trying to make money farming or selling tropical wood.

The article had a brief reference to using market forces to stop deforestation as an indirect way of buying time for alternative energy development. I thought this was a very interesting point. The way I interpreted this reference was that if we stop or at least limit the enormous carbon dioxide emissions due to deforestation, we may slow global warming. This may in turn, give us a bit more time to curb our other carbon dioxide emissions--i.e. those from fossil fuel burning and consumption. I think we also need to keep in mind, however, that our other carbon dioxide emissions may still impact the preservation of the world's forests, as areas like the Amazon may not be able to continue handling the warming temperatures of the earth. At least if we make some progress on stopping deforestation, we may start a trend of using market forces to limit further carbon dioxide emissions through cap and trade. This will not be a total solution to a grave problem, but we need to start somewhere and we need to do it now.