What’s The Carbon Footprint Of War? | Gizmodo Australia

Can humanity’s skirmishes change the climate?

Yes, says a new study in The Holocene by Julia Pongratz of the Carnegie Institution for Science. It all comes down to a trade-off between people and trees: when a brutal war or devastating plague significantly reduces a human population, forests have the chance to re-grow and absorb carbon dioxide, mitigating the greenhouse effect.
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However, Pongratz points out, any sighs of relief forests drew from human war and death failed to overcome the climate damage caused by a long and continuing history of deforestation. As far as the Earth is concerned, there have been way too many people, and too few trees, for far too long.