Old growth forests store way more carbon:

[applegrove]

https://scitechdaily.com/shocking-carbon-discovery-in-swedens-forests-stuns-scientists/

“Shocking” Carbon Discovery in Sweden’s Forests Stuns Scientists
By Stanford University March 21, 2026

The planet’s northern forests hold enormous amounts of carbon in spruce, pine, and thick, needle-rich soils. But a major new study led by researchers at Lund University and Stanford University found that industrial logging is rapidly weakening that climate benefit. The largest losses are taking place below ground.

In Sweden, the research team mapped old-growth forests nationwide and measured carbon at more than 200 forest sites over three years. They combined those field measurements with decades of national forest and soil carbon inventory records, along with statistical modeling. The result is a first-of-its-kind estimate of carbon stored in vegetation, dead wood, soil, and harvested timber.

The findings, published March 19 in Science, show a large divide. Undisturbed primary forests store 72% more carbon per acre than the managed forests replacing them, which are often single-species plantations. That comparison includes carbon stored in products made from harvested wood, such as bioenergy, paper, and construction materials. When harvested wood products are left out, primary forests store 83% more carbon per acre.

The gap is 2.7 to 8 times larger than current official estimates. In practical terms, bringing Sweden’s managed forests back to the carbon storage level of primary forests would keep nearly 8 billion tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. That is about equal to Sweden’s total fossil fuel emissions over the past 200 years and hundreds of times greater than the country’s current annual fossil CO2 emissions.

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. Link to study here

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127188340

[applegrove]

2. Thanks.