Global PAs prevent huge amounts of carbon emissions, study says; more than 2x annual US total

If left unguarded, many of the world’s protected lands would have likely been burned, logged, or otherwise degraded, unleashing huge sums of heat-trapping gas.

Over the last two decades, these assaults would have yielded 9.65 billion tons of carbon, more than double U.S. fossil fuel emissions last year. That is the finding of a new study highlighting “the critical importance of protected areas to help mitigate climate change.”

https://e360.yale.edu/digest/protected-areas-carbon