NASA Supercomputing Study Breaks Ground for Tree Mapping, Carbon Research

Scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and international collaborators demonstrated a new method for mapping the location and size of trees growing outside of forests, discovering surprisingly high numbers of trees in semi-arid regions and laying the groundwork for more accurate global measurement of carbon storage on land.

[Detteermiig]

This map should be used to define the baseline for carbon offsetting. If the carbon storage of your area is declining you should be punished, either economically or by reputation. If your area is staying the same you could be labeled as semi protected. If it's actually protected it should be monitored so that the area is actually staying the same or increasing. If it's increasing, then finally you can be labeled as a source for carbon offsetting. You can't just say that you're carbon offsetting because "oh, I'm not going to cut down this forest anyway"

[robertcallaghan]

The outlook for bioenergy capture is grim due to deep soil carbon loss
The impact of deep carbon loss on abrupt permafrost heating is dismal