Moreover, they are so caught up in their insanity they can’t even acknowledge fundamental facts. There is only a fixed amount of carbon on the planet. So, any annual carbon budget, or carbon cycle analysis will be dealing with the same amount of carbon. The issue then is where does it go. That poor schlub who found trees were net carbon sources failed to work with the larger picture. Whether a sink or a source, the tree is either putting more carbon back into the soil, or drawing it out of the soil, or out of the air and the water in the soil and air. If he did it properly, the total picture would net out to zero and he would have an honest appraisal of how carbon gets partitioned in the environment by trees.
Even then, if you take a closer look, you will find fascinating differences in carbon utilization among different species of trees, as well as the microorganisms associated with them.
what drove them even crazier was research that was in progress showing that not only were the forests (in northern michigan, mostly aspen) net carbon emitters, but the majority of the carbon in the summer season was in the form of VOC’s, a major component in the formation of ground level ozone. It was amazing to see them wrestle with that one!
LOL!!