I was trained as a range ecology scientist and I learned a lot and enjoyed it but it was a dying field and I did not get a job in the field. I had to take a job in an allied field of landscaping to feed my family. SO I have been out of it for over 30 years so my studies and understanding may a bit outdated.

But, I had to read a good article on CO2. One author proposed what you said here, that it is not forests that are the sink for absorption and sequestration of CO2 but the oceans. Made a lot of sense to me as 2/3 of the planet is water and of the other 1/3 all of that is not forest and trees but other ecosystems. So my question remains how can less than 1/3 of the worlds surface area absorb CO2 and clean it up to breathable O2. But you still hear that deforestation is adding to CO2 problems so we got to quit taking trees. Even though I have since read there are more trees in North America now that when the colonists got here you still see we are gonna die from deforestation.

So, like you say our scientific knowledge is more limited than they want us to believe. Science has become a god and a catch all phrase yet there is not really a scientific consensus on a lot of areas because there are reputable folk who still have questions who are trying to come to more of an engineering type understanding of the scientific fields they love.

And that ain't no way to run a railroad and force our economy and society to adopt certain behaviors based on guesses and activist agendas. Real people are hurt and killed by that type of thinking.