The experts said that the green cover removes carbon from the atmosphere as trees have a good store of carbon in leaves woody tissue, roots and organic matter in soil. They said that due to massive deforestation, chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases were increasing as trees were the main source of absorbing these gases.
Kashif Salik, an environmental expert working at Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), said that after seas forests are the second largest storehouse of the carbon. The world ‘s forests absorb 2.4 billion tonnes of carbondioxide each year or about one-third of the carbondioxide released through the burning of fossil fuels, he said.
Dr. Fahad Saeed said that forests also represent the world ‘s most significant terrestrial carbon store containing an estimated 77 percent of all carbon stored in vegetation and 39 percent of all carbon stored in soils.
He said the twice as much carbon is present in the atmosphere, while around 50 percent of the dry weight of a tree accounts for carbon.
Deforestation is the second leading contributor of carbon emissions worldwide after the burning of fossil fuels, Dr Mehmood Khalid Qamar, a senior environmental expert told this news agency.
Forests can cool the planet by absorbing the greenhouse gas carbondioxide during photosynthesis, he said.
Qamar further said that trees and vegetation can also cool the planet by evaporating water to the atmosphere and increasing cloudiness a deck of white clouds reflects incoming solar radiation straight back out into space.
Dr. Syed Faisal said that trees can also have a warming effect because they are dark and absorb a lot of sunlight holding heat near ground level.
Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/print/89397-Forest-cover-plays-critical-role-in-regulating-earths-climate