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Published online 10 April 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news070409-2

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Total destruction of forests predicted to cool Earth

Modelling study no excuse for deforestation, researchers warn.

Large-scale deforestation — long fingered as a contributing factor in climate change — could cool Earth, say the researchers behind one of the first attempts to model the phenomenon at a global scale.

Logging is often attacked because living trees help to mop up carbon dioxide, thereby buffering rises in greenhouse gases.

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