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Show Notes
This summer, the world watched in near-universal horror as thousands of square miles of rainforest went up in flames. But what exactly makes forests so precious — and deforestation so costly? On the 20th episode of Not Cool, Ariel explores the many ways in which forests impact the global climate — and the profound price we pay when we destroy them. She’s joined by Deborah Lawrence, Environmental Science Professor at the University of Virginia whose research focuses on the ecological effects of tropical deforestation. Deborah discusses the causes of this year's Amazon rain forest fires, the varying climate impacts of different types of forests, and the relationship between deforestation, agriculture, and carbon emissions. She also explains why the Amazon is not the lungs of the planet, what makes tropical forests so good at global cooling, and how putting a price on carbon emissions could slow deforestation.
Topics discussed include:
- Amazon rain forest fires
- Deforestation of the rainforest
- Tipping points in deforestation
- Climate impacts of forests: local vs. global
- Evapotranspiration
- Why tropical forests do the most cooling
- Non-climate impacts of forests
- Global rate of deforestation
- Why the amazon is not the lungs of the planet
- Impacts of agriculture on forests
- Using degraded land for new crops
- Connection between forests and other greenhouse gases
- Individual actions and policies
References discussed include:
- Amazon Tipping Point, Carlos Nobre & Thomas Lovejoy (2018)
There's plenty of reasons why we want to keep forests. They regulate the hydrological cycle. They tend to minimize flooding; they manage flows in rivers. They are kind of like a sponge, so they take up rainfall or snowfall and then they trickle it out slowly, so that it's available for us or ecosystems or agriculture.
~ Deborah Lawrence
