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Changing Land Use

It is not always the burning of fossil fuels which is impacting CO₂ emissions. Changing land use is also an issue;

The "Trip to Jerusalem" Inn claims to be the oldest Pub in England. I have many fond memories of having a few pints at this location. The educational context you ask? Listen to this . (Text Version)

As I ponder the seasonal event of raking leaves I wish I had a smaller garden, or fewer trees. My house is a typical size for the State College area at about 0.3 acres. That does not sound like much (until you rake leaves), but there are lots of houses. As the population grows and economic development occurs, new homes are constructed. So for every home on a "Greenfield" site takes away a chunk of land that used to hold biomass. My house was built in 1972 on what was once farmland. Going further back in time, the whole State College area was forest. Indians (Native Americans) lived on the land and killed settlers in this area. Look at the map sometime and see how many "fort something's" there are.

And we're not just talking about land for residences - this includes roadways, open parks, schools, businesses, shops, natural products and agriculture. You've heard this before...."They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot"...Joni Mitchell

Here the deforestation occurring provides wood or grazing for cattle. "Satellite image of deforestation in the Amazon region, taken from the Brazilian state of Para on July 15, 1986. The dark areas are forest, the white is deforested areas, and the gray is re-growth. The pattern of deforestation spreading along roads is obvious in the lower half of the image. Scattered larger clearings can be seen near the center of the image."-NASA

As more forest is clear cut there is less of a carbon sink to contain carbon and this influences CO2 emissions, particularly if burning is the means to "clear cutting" of the forest. This issue of land change is major issue in the developing world. Here in the US, our agricultural productivity has risen so that the government pays farmers not to farm the land! Deforestation also causes loss of environment for endangered species, runoff, loss of topsoil through erosions, and deadly mudslides in location such as Haiti.