There should be more in the atmosphere than we find in measurements, so some CO 2 is being stored shomewhere in the system where for some reason we can't measure it. Political conservatives point to these unknowns and say that the scientists don't know anything, assume the most optimistic projections, and state that there is no cause for concern. Radical environmentalists point to these unknowns, assume the most pessimistic projections, and state that it may already be too late. If past controversies are any guide, the truth lies somewhere between these extremes. What has changed is not the fundamental biological nature of humans, but our numbers, organization, and interdependance.
Forests do more than simply grow wood and make oxygen.
They form a living storehouse and vertical transporter of moisture, and a living fabric holding onto the soil and its moisture. They also form a canopy of leaves shading the ground and allowing it to retain yet more moisture. By transpiring water through their leaves they put moisture into the air, which then rains out again over another part of the forest. When an intact forest is cut down and removed, the sun reaches the ground, drying it. The rain that results washes away the soils that are now un-restrained by root systems.