William Anderegg

…Many corporate, national and state climate policies rely on forests’ ability to store carbon—often tracked and funded through a system of “carbon credits” issued to polluting industries in exchange for protecting and restoring forests. But when trees die suddenly—from wildfire, drought or insect infestation—vast amounts of greenhouse gases are released, exacerbating ongoing climate change. And the warming climate is accelerating this problem by making such disturbances more frequent and severe. New research led by University of Utah scientists in collaboration with international experts sought to determine the likelihood that forests will release their stored carbon over the next 100 years. Along the way, they documented how current carbon-credit systems fail to accurately account for that risk in U.S. forests, particularly the parched U.S. West. But the research points out ways this problem can be corrected, according to William Anderegg, senior author on the study published in Nature.