Fire and Rain: How Destruction of Tropical Forests is Fueling Climate Change

Select Committee Examines Deforestation’s Role in Warming Climate

If a Tree Falls in the Woods, How Much Does the Climate Suffer?

Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will held a hearing examining the essential role the world’s tropical forests play in regulating the planet’s climate, and how increased deforestation can lead to accelerated global warming.

More than 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are the result of deforestation and forest degradation. Through this hearing, the Select Committee assessed the current and possible future contributions of deforestation to global warming, policy options to prevent deforestation and how those policies would be implemented, and how global warming in turn is expected to impact tropical forests.

WHAT: Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming hearing: “Fire and Rain: How Destruction of Tropical Forests is Fueling Climate Change”  

WHEN: 2:00 PM ET, Thursday, February 14, 2008

WHERE: 430 Dirksen Senate Office Building

OPENING STATEMENT: Chairman Edward Markey 

WITNESSES:

Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, President, The Heinz Center
Mr. Stuart Eizenstat, Partner, Covington & Burling, on behalf of Sustainable Forestry Management
Ms. Stephanie Meeks, Acting President and CEO, The Nature Conservancy

For more information on deforestation, please visit the Amazon Rainforest IMPACT ZONE section of our website. 

Click here for full hearing transcript

PHOTOS:

(right click pictures to enlarge)

Lovejoy,  Eizenstat and  Meeks

Rep Inslee. Lovejoy. Rep. Cleaver, Meeks and Chairman Markey

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