title: Europe's forest management did not mitigate climate warming.
abstract: Afforestation and forest management are considered to be key instruments in mitigating climate change. Here we show that since 1750, in spite of considerable afforestation, wood extraction has led to Europe's forests accumulating a carbon debt of 3.1 petagrams of carbon. We found that afforestation is responsible for an increase of 0.12 watts per square meter in the radiative imbalance at the top of the atmosphere, whereas an increase of 0.12 kelvin in summertime atmospheric boundary layer temperature was mainly caused by species conversion. Thus, two and a half centuries of forest management in Europe have not cooled the climate. The political imperative to mitigate climate change through afforestation and forest management therefore risks failure, unless it is recognized that not all forestry contributes to climate change mitigation.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement-Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint Quentin, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Naudts
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement-Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint Quentin, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: Yiying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement-Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint Quentin, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: McGrath
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement-Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint Quentin, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ryder
authors.affiliation: Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, 75010 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Aude
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Valade
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement-Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint Quentin, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: Juliane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Otto
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement-Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint Quentin, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: Sebastiaan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Luyssaert
mesh_terms: D001272:Atmosphere / Q000737:chemistry; D002244:Carbon / Q000032:analysis; D057486:Carbon Cycle; D005060:Europe; D016468:Forestry; D065928:Forests; D057232:Global Warming; D017752:Greenhouse Effect
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon