originally titled:
Foliage Spoilage & the
Trees' Canopy Collapse
Death By Ozone | The Ozone Know Zone
A study published in the Journal Nature, The contribution of insects to global forest deadwood decomposition found, "Worldwide, dead and decaying wood releases roughly 10.9 gigatons of carbon every year. This is roughly 115% of annual fossil fuel emissions. Globally, the net effect of insects may account for 29% of the carbon flux from deadwood,"
Examples: Emerald Ash Borer, Whitebark Pine Beetle, Worm Invasion, Beetlemania and Utah Beetles
Feedback loops accelerate global warming. For example, global warming has resulted in tree deaths and deforestation (see above.) Trees are a natural carbon sink for carbon dioxide, as well as, provide shade, retain moisture, and aid in cooling. As trees die from the effects of global warming, climate change is accelerated resulting in more tree deaths. Scientists' warning to humanity on tree extinctions, "This evidence suggests that a third of the world's tree species are currently threatened with extinction, which represents a major ecological crisis. Large-scale extinction of tree species will lead to major biodiversity losses in other species groups and substantially alter the cycling of carbon, water and nutrients in the world's ecosystems. Loss of tree diversity could lead to abrupt declines in ecosystem functions and services, and ultimately ecosystem collapse."
Wildfires also are a climate change feedback loop. As the planet warms, wildfires increase. Wildfires destroy the carbon sink of forests, and spew massive amounts of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. The result is an increase in global warming. The increase in global warming results in more wildfires resulting in desertification.
In 2020, 20% of all the forests in Australia burned. Some of these forests hadn't seen fires in the last 35,000 years. "More than 24 million hectares (59 million acres) burned during Australia's devastating 'Black Summer' bushfire season of 2019-2020, which formed part of a confirmed climate change-driven trend of worsening fire weather and larger, more intense forest fires," reported Mongabay News.
The 2021 fire season saw a record number of acres burned in the Northwestern USA and Canada. In California a total of 8,835 fires were recorded, burning 2,568,948 acres (1,039,616 ha) across the state. Over 1.4 million acres burned in Oregon and Washington. "Three times in the past five years, over 10 million acres have burned nationwide. On average, over 2 million more acres burned each year in the 2010s than during the 1990s," reports Spokane's KXLY.
Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports, "by 2070, around 2 billion people are expected to live in extremely hot areas" similar to the Sahara Desert.
Our climate model uses chaos theory in an attempt to adequately account for humans and forecasts a global average temperature increase of 9 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Everybody has the responsibility not to pollute. Stop using fossil fuels. Consume less. Love more.