Stories

While recently visiting Denver, I found compelling evidence that this city is on its way to becoming a green superstar! I had the chance to try out a B Cycle bike from the bike share program on the Cherry Creek Parkway, eat organically, "sleep green” and visit a Superfund site – a former munitions brownfield that is now a national wildlife refuge.  With over 200 parks and 62 miles of bike trails, Denver is protecting its green space for the public to enjoy, creating green jobs, and finding innovative solutions for its challenges.

Read more: Sustainability Spotlight: Denver, Colorado

Forests are an important part of the global carbon cycle.  Trees retain a portion of the CO₂ they remove from the atmosphere, sequestering that carbon in the tree for as long as it lives.  Dead trees and fallen leaves and branches decompose on the forest floor, at which point the carbon is either released back into the atmosphere or stored in the soil.  The amount of carbon a forest is able to store varies based on the tree species, soil type, underlying geology, regional climate and the forestry management practices used.  Typically, younger forests that are still growing rapidly and forests with younger underlying rocks store the most carbon.

Read more: Forests: how well do they really store carbon?

Sometimes people wonder whether climate change really matters. They may ask, “What difference can a few degrees make?” or even complain, “We could use some of that global warming now” in the winter. Statistical predictions about changes in temperature and precipitation can seem abstract and unimportant to the average person watching the evening news, especially when other issues, such as the economy and national security are so pressing. However, it is important to remember that the increase in global average temperatures is only the tip of the melting iceberg, so to speak.

Read more: Climate Change and Food Production

 Editor’s note: This article is the third in a three-part series that investigates the connections among increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, the ocean’s role in absorbing carbon dioxide and the effect on marine ecosystems, and what happens to atmospheric oxygen levels when the base of the food chain—phytoplankton—dies off.

Read more: Atmospheric Oxygen Depletion: Should We Be Worried?