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

Dr. Mathews: I obtained my first degree from Nottingham Trent University. It is a wonderful university and a great city of Nottingham. And of course with the drinking age being 18, the pubs featured very heavily in our lifestyle. One of my favorite pubs was the Trip to Jerusalem Inn. This claims to be the oldest pub in the country. The story goes that the knights, on their way to Jerusalem, came out of Nottingham Castle, turned right, went to the bar to have a beer, and then continued on for the crusades. If they did the same trip now, they would go past the statue of Robin Hood. The city of Nottingham is very much synonymous with Robin Hood and his merry men. Interesting though, if you would like to go to Sherwood Forest from Nottingham it would take about a five day walk to get there. Nottingham Forest, or Sherwood Forest more correctly, has shrunk considerably since the day of Robin Hood and his merry men. Land changing issues are very important. In this satellite photograph you can see areas where roads have come in and the forest is being cleared and logged. We have an insatiable appetite for wood. Just look around you. I am sure you could probably see a wooden door or a wooden desk or a wooden chair. So very interestingly when we cut down these forests we release a great deal of CO2 into the atmosphere and of course that contributes to climate change. On the global scale now, Europe doesn't commit a great deal of CO2 from land change use issues. What happens is we have already cut down most of our forests and those that are remaining are protected. However, it is the developing nations and some other nations where significant land changes are still occurring and it is all going to contribute to climate change. Remember, these forests are great big CO2 sinks, they are self propagating storage areas for carbon monoxide.
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 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 somethings" 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
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 a 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 erosion, and deadly mudslides in locations such as Haiti.
