<i>“When they get warmer than average, forests in the tropics do not like it, and overall they tend to put more CO2 into the atmosphere than they take out,” says study co-author Pep Canadell, executive officer of the Global Carbon Project.</i><p>This particular statement strikes me as spin; if forests were producing more CO2 than they were consuming then by the necessities of chemistry the plants would start to die due to lack of sustenance (sugars, including cellulose, which are made from CO2 and photosynthesis).<p>Either the forest gets to a homeostasis, it start to expand, or it dies back vis a vis the partial derivative of impact of CO2 levels. If indeed the CO2 levels being produced are more than consumption then where are the plants getting their energy from? And don't say animals, because if that was the case then the animals would have to be eating more and more of the forests. The only case I can see is wide scale felling, but then wide scale felling is not a case of plants producing more CO2.<p>CO2 levels are a problem, but this short description of this report seems to be muddying the waters not making them more clear.