We are cutting down trees at an alarming rate. Here are the first 6 of 51 facts:
Fact 1: Forests cover 30% of the earth’s land.
Fact 2: It is estimated that within 100 years there will be no rainforests.
Fact 3: Agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation
Fact 4: One and a half acres of forest is cut down every second.
Fact 6: If the current rate of deforestation continues, it will take less than 100 years to destroy all the rainforests on the earth.
In Canada our biggest concern is the rate at which we are deforesting primary forests to make room for road networks, logging and mining.
Ask folks on Vancouver Island who are diligently fighting against cutting down the scare remaining giants. They will never be recovered.
The idea of planting trees as a solution to the climate crisis is an overly simplistic idea.
There are environmental costs to planting and growing trees, it would take too long for reforestation to make a difference in terms of carbon capture. The place where reforestation would make the biggest impact is in the tropics.
Planting trees on a large scale in these regions is problematic as many of these countries are clear cutting to make room for pastureland and cash crops.
If we stop eating beef and using products with palm oil the incentives for creating land for agriculture will diminish.
According to an article in Anthropocene Magazine
Biomass plantations can contribute to climate change mitigation, the researchers say—albeit as a supporting actor rather than in a lead role. And we shouldn’t miss the chance to reforest degraded land, or protect forests so that they can increase and regain their capacity to store carbon.
But their calculations lead to an unmistakable conclusion. We can’t plant our way out of climate change. The only way to avoid disaster is to cut our carbon dioxide emissions—much faster and much more deeply than we’ve managed to wrap our heads around to date.
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