Deforestation Emissions Less Than Thought, Study Finds

A new study carried out by eco-friendly nonprofit Winrock International and NASA scientists finds that the massive tropical deforestation that took place in the early 2000s produced almost one-third less carbon emissions than previously estimated: 0.81 billion metric tons of carbon per year between 2000 and 2005, compared to 1.2 billion tons estimated in 2009 (itself a revision of earlier data suggesting the emissions were between 1.5 and 2.2 billion metric tons). The new value means that deforestation emissions accounted for 10 percent of overall manmade carbon emissions those years.