Experts Say Logging Of Vast Siberian Forest Could Foster Warming
THE forests of the Amazon and other tropical regions have been getting attention for some time, and understandably so. They are home to a disproportionate share of the world's living species, they absorb huge amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide that would otherwise exert a big heating effect on the earth's climate and they are rapidly being destroyed.
Less well known is the vast stretch of fir, larch, spruce and pine that girdles the continents at far northern latitudes and is known as the taiga. The word is derived from the Russian, appropriately enough since the Siberian part of the taiga is the largest forest in the world, far larger than the Brazilian Amazon. At more than two million square miles, it would cover the entire continental United States excepting Alaska. Like the tropical forests, it is a major absorber of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Now, with Russia economically devastated and hungry for hard currency as it converts to a market economy, environmentalists are raising fears that joint ventures between the Russians and American, Japanese or Korean timber companies could lead to extensive deforestation of the Siberian taiga. This, the environmentalists warn, could contribute significantly to global warming.
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