Republicans want to open pristine Alaska wilderness to logging. This is a tragedy | Kim Heacox

The Tongass forest sequesters 3m tons of C02 annually, the equivalent of removing 650,000 gas-burning cars off the roads every yearForests are the lungs of the Earth.Around the world, every minute of every day, trees perform magic. They inhale vast amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and exhale oxygen, the stuff of life. They keep things in balance. And no single forest does this better – contains more living plant life per area, or stores more carbon – than the 17m-acre Tongass national forest in coastal Alaska. Related: Big oil's answer to melting Arctic: cooling the ground so it can keep drilling The wholesale destruction of our imperiled planet’s most life-sustaining forests has to stopKim Heacox is the author of books including The Only Kayak, a memoir, and Jimmy Bluefeather, the only novel to ever win the National Outdoor Book Award. He lives in Alaska, on the edge of the Tongass Continue reading...