Re:Colossal peat bog discovered in Congo
by bencollier49 on Tuesday May 27, 2014 @04:39AM
(#7803503)
This has serious potential to be a very nasty source of CO2 emissions and habitat loss if they decide to industrialise it.
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Re:Colossal peat bog discovered in Congo
by madaxe_again on Tuesday May 27, 2014 @05:36AM
(#7803648)
Never mind industrialise. If they chop the trees down for lumber, as seems to be the destiny for all tropical forests, the soil will dry, and microbes will be able to start decomposing the biotic material currently locked up in an anaerobic environment. This has already been seen in Norfolk in the UK, where they increased drainage and removed ground cover, and ever since, the peat has emanted vast amounts of CO2 as ground levels fall by inches a year due to conversion of the solid matter into decomposition products (methane, CO2, etc.)
Re:Colossal peat bog discovered in Congo
by vanderZwan on Tuesday May 27, 2014 @05:42AM
(#7803663)
Indonesia is also a pretty bad example - see Willie Smits' talk on conservation: