Eleanor Babcock
12/3/15
UNFCCC Week!

As the climate negotiations rage on, I remain in lovely Minnesota enjoying the heavy snowfall we got on Tuesday and watching it slowly melt away. This week in my environmental science lab we are analyzing tree population variety in our very own St. Johns arboretum. The existence of our arboretum makes me value our ability to have access to trees for timber, oxygen and protection. One of the major questions being asked at Cop 21 is how and what is the best way to protect our forests. Deforestation is a leading problem to of climate change because it reduces our carbon sinks, increases out planets reflective of solar radiation and decreases natural forest habitats.

In an article published by Grist written by Clayton Aldren following the progress of Cop 21 REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) is described as an efficient and plausible method for protecting our valued forests. REDD+ can be considered a "carbon market" for forests. It can be used to offset emissions by purchasing credits which protect a forest from being cut down. The main problem with this is it is difficult to gage which countries are following through on their forest protection. by instituting a policy measure such as REDD+, then nations will have less worry about which forests are going to be cut down. 

Forest protection links to climate change in a number of ways. Their salvation is crucial to the reduction in out planets warming trend. Using REDD+ and other forest protection policy measures will decrease deforestation which will domino into many other positive actions related to the environment. These positive actions include decreased environmental justice problems because many forests being cut down are near impoverished towns, increase in our carbon sinks because there will be more trees to uptake carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and release it as oxygen, and will decrease solar reflectivity off the earth because that solar radiation will be absorbed by out worlds precious forests. 


Further reading: http://grist.org/climate-energy/whats-the-best-way-to-protect-forests-thats-a-big-question-at-the-paris-climate-talks/