Global Deforestation Through Burning a Significant Source of Greenhouse Gases. (May 14, 2007)

    In the April 27 issue of Science Eli Kintisch writes of the increasingly sophisticated use of satellite monitoring of global deforestation and makes the point:

Generating good data on deforestation is more than an academic exercise. The process of cutting down forests and clearing the land--by burning the wood, churning soil for agriculture or grazing, and allowing the remaining biomass to decay--produces as much as 25% of the world's yearly emissions of greenhouse gases. That makes keeping tabs on deforestation a crucial issue for government officials negotiating future climate agreements--including a meeting next month in Bonn, Germany, and one next year in Bali to extend the 1997 Kyoto agreement after its 2012 expiration.

Source: THE NATURE CONSERVANCY AND HANSEN AND DEFRIES, 2004