Climate change soon could push Earth's boreal forests to 'tipping point'

Source: Christian Science Monitor

Climate change soon could push Earth's boreal forests to 'tipping point'

By Cristina Maza, Staff writer AUGUST 21, 2015

International policy makers should set their sights on the protection of boreal forests, international forestry experts argued this week in an article published Thursday in the journal Science. The article was part of a special issue on forests released before the World Forestry Congress is held in September.

“Boreal forests have the potential to hit a tipping point this century,” said Anatoly Shvidenko, a researcher scholar with the Ecosystems Services and Management Program at Austria's International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). “It is urgent that we place more focus on climate mitigation and adaptation with respect to these forests, and also take a more integrated and balanced view of forests around the world.”

Boreal forests cover the northernmost regions of Canada, Russia, Alaska, and Scandinavia, and make up about 30 percent of the planet’s total forest area. But now experts say that they are being threatened by warmer temperatures brought on by climate change.

"The changes could be very dramatic and very fast," Dmitry Schepaschenko, an IIASA representative, told The Canadian Press.

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Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2015/0821/Climate-change-soon-could-push-Earth-s-boreal-forests-to-tipping-point