Logging industry official: Harvesting trees from old–growth forests for use in manufacture can reduce the amount of c...

shunhe on June 24, 2020

Hi @jingjingxiao11111@gmail.com,

Thanks for the question! So let’s take a look at what the logging industry official is saying. We’re told that harvesting old-growth forest trees and using them in manufacture can reduce CO2 in the atmosphere (this is the conclusion). Why? Because when they die in the forest, they release their stored CO2; presumably, when they don’t die in the forest and are turned into other things, they won’t do so. Also, another reason is that young trees can absorb more carbon dioxide than old trees can, and the old trees could be replaced with young trees.

Now we’re looking for something that will most seriously weaken the official’s argument. And one thing that we should be able to anticipate is the case in which the trees are used in manufacture, but still release their stored carbon dioxide (which would be stored over the years, and thus, a lot of carbon dioxide). (B) tells us that much of the organic matter from old-growth trees will be made into products that decompose rapidly. And when the products decompose, the trees’ stored carbon dioxide is released. And if that’s true, then a lot of the carbon dioxide will be released, probably more than the young trees can soak up at once (even though they have a faster rate, remember that the trees are letting off tons of stored CO2). And so (B) weakens the argument, since it shows the possibility that cutting down old trees and using them in manufacture will just get them to release their CO2 all at the same time, which would probably increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.