Experts Bemoan Bidens Mixed Messages On Old-Growth Forests

A group of U.S. forest ecologists, climate scientists and conservationists are calling out what they view as a huge disconnect between President Joe Bidens rhetoric about the urgent need to combat deforestation and the policies hes advancing back home.

In remarks on his last day at COP26, the United Nations climate summit being held in Glasgow, Scotland, Biden touted the $550 billion in climate spending included in his Build Back Better plan making its way through Congress and applauded a new 100-country pledge to halt deforestation by the end of the decade.

Preserving forests and other ecosystems can and should play an important role in meeting our ambitious climate goals as part of the net-zero emissions strategy we all have, Biden said Tuesday. The United States is going to lead by our example at home and support other forested nations and developing countries in setting and achieving ambitious action to conserve and restore these carbon sinks.

#GOP26: President Biden announces new plan to conserve global forests. pic.twitter.com/Ehfx2x3cRx

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#GOP26 : President Biden announces new plan to conserve global forests. pic.twitter.com/Ehfx2x3cRx
Forbes (@Forbes) November 2, 2021

His comments came a day after the White House released a 65-page long-term strategy for slashing greenhouse gas emissions that includes eyebrow-raising language about forest carbon removal: Substantial forested lands, including large portions of our Western public lands, now have older forests which sequester less CO2 and are more vulnerable to natural disturbances.

The line left a lot of people going pardon my French What the fuck! said Steve Pedery, conservation director at environmental organization Oregon Wild.

Pedery said the strategy document seems to float logging specifically, cutting down mature stands of trees in order to plant younger ones as a solution to climate change and climate-fueled wildfires.

Whats next, resurrecting clean coal and warning against the dangers of windmill cancer? he said.

Old-growth forests sequester massive amounts of carbon in trees and soil, and scientists say protecting the few that remain intact will prove key to meeting climate and biodiversity targets.