Protecting ancient rainforests is a good thing to help save the environment and to fight global warming. But when it comes to capturing carbon from the atmosphere, newly grown rainforests can absorb 11 times as much as old-growth forests, a new study shows. In order to maximize access to sunlight, nutrients and water, new trees grow quickly. This means the plants sequester a much greater amount of carbon from the atmosphere, which it uses as part of the photosynthesis process that uses sunlight to produce the sugars the plant needs to grow.