ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

"An Air Conditioner or a Sink?: The Bioclimatic Value of Rainforests, 1970 to 2000"

• In Event: Histories of Biogeography Part 2

English Abstract

Early modern naturalists regarded forests as mysterious and potentially powerful climatic objects: equally capable of nurturing beneficial rainfall or rendering entire regions cold and inhospitable. Such theories faded during the first half of the twentieth century as forests became disassociated from climatic processes; a newly ascendant, quantitative science of meteorology dismissed forest-climate links as unscientific. It is into this unpropitious context that a new generation of climate scientists and ecologists in the 1980s began to study the relationship between forests, particularly the Brazilian rainforest, and anthropogenic climate change. This paper identifies how these scientists developed two contrasting models to highlight the bioclimatic value of rainforests: the air-conditioner and the sink. Whereas climate scientists largely highlighted the role of the Amazon in ensuring cool temperatures and frequent precipitation (an air conditioner), ecologists focused on the role of the Amazon in sequestering carbon (a carbon sink). Although frequently aligning with the rainforest biodiversity movement, these bioclimatic valuations of the rainforest sometimes contrasted in both means and ultimate goals. Indeed, the ability of models of carbon sinks to simplify and quantify the diverse rainforest environment allowed for the development of a global carbon offset market by the mid-1990s. This paper seeks to understand this shift, analyzing why carbon sequestration quickly become the largest driver of land conservation in the tropics.

Author

• Oliver Lucier, Yale University