It has been argued that cutting old- growth forests and replacing them with plantations of young trees would help to alleviate the threat of global greenhouse warming.What important fact does this argument ignore?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Cutting old-growth forests would release the carbon stored in the biomass of those trees into the atmosphere as CO2, which would exacerbate the problem of global greenhouse warming. While young trees do absorb CO2 from the atmosphere as they grow, it takes many years for them to reach the same level of biomass as mature old-growth trees, so replanting with young trees would not immediately offset the carbon released by cutting down the old-growth forests. Additionally, marine algae do play a significant role in global CO2 dynamics, but this does not negate the importance of forests as carbon sinks.

It Has Been Argued That Cutting Old- Growth Forests and Replacing