Report: Wood use mitigates climate change

Using wood for energy and consumer products has long-term benefits for the environment if done in a sustainable manner, U.S. researchers said. A report in the Journal of Forestry says forests can provide both environmental and economic benefits if U.S. policies are based on sound science. "This work should help policymakers reconsider the critical impact forests have on our daily lives and the potential they have to solve problems that confront our nation," said Robert Malmsheimer, a professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, N.Y. "We believe our science-based findings should lead toward positive reforms that encourage investment in this vital renewable resource," Malmsheimer, who chaired a task force that prepared the report, said in a university release Monday. Malmsheimer called the report an assessment of "the current state of the science" regarding forest management and carbon production. "Using forest products means we're mostly recirculating carbon that has already existed in the atmosphere. It was sequestered by trees and when we burn the wood for energy, we're releasing it again. "Or if we produce wood products, we're continuing to sequester it. But if you produce something out of plastic or concrete or metal you need to use more Earth-based fossil fuel to produce it, and that releases all that additional carbon into the atmosphere."