Quote
Forestry experts were dumbfounded by Mr. Rohrabacher’s line of questioning, noting that the world’s forests currently absorb far more carbon dioxide than they emit — capturing roughly one-third of all man-made emissions and helping mitigate climate change.
That's incorrect - it's a lot more accurate to say absorbing "slightly more" CO2 than they emit. I don't know where they are getting the "far more" figure from. While the notion that cutting down forests would reduce emissions is clearly bonkers the notion of decaying plant matter releasing CO2 is actually correct. Decaying plant matter also, over time, produces peat and coal - which idiotic bipedal species then dig up and burn - releasing even more CO2 (though that's hardly the forest's fault)
Strictly speaking, "young" forest that never decayed and died would do a much better job of trapping CO2. Microbes in the ocean do the best job (my god, I'm channeling Don...)
