[DropbearRob]

For me the biggest question is why is that period of time considered the "baseline". The climate is a dynamic system in constant change. There has never been a static period of climate. It is forever in flux. Climate Change is the normal state of climate. The REAL question is, how much of the observed rate of change is attributable to human factors, and what is the most effective way to combat the emergence of a potentially hazardous climate scenario.

I am personally in the camp of plant more trees. It is a fact that sunlight falling onto a plant causes the energy to be converted into cellular metabolism and sequestering CO2. A desert however will absorb and then re-radiate a lot of that heat. We need to stop deforestation and take advantage of the higher c02 levels to grow more plants. Hell lets start some geo-engineering projects which will be useful for when we need to terraform other planets.

[phaemon]

> For me the biggest question is why is that period of time considered the "baseline".

For convenience. It allows you to compare the last two 30 year periods: 1951-1980 vs 1981-2010

[ekianjo]

> We need to stop deforestation

That may be one way to address it, but there's a lot to be done to have any effect there. Most of the places where massive deforestation is happening is where the most corrupt officials are.

[DropbearRob]

I agree 100% that there is a lot more to be done than simply reducing deforestation, however it is a simple action to be taken. The growth of just trees/plants is only one method of sequestration, all the insect and animal growth are also CO2 and energy sinks.

There are many things that we can do to attempt to tackle the issue of a developing hostile climate. however trading carbon credits is not one. We need simple engineering solutions, but biological CO2 sequestration is quite efficient. especially algaes, plankton, grasses, insects, etc.