Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest continues to plunge

Re:Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest continues to plunge by m463 on Wednesday September 13, 2023 @06:57PM (#37502778)

I think we might have run out of trees.

> 90% of the old-growth forests that existed in the contiguous United States in the 1600s have been cleared.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old-growth_forest#Logging

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation

Locations of remaining tracts

  35% in South America
  28% in North America
  19% in northern Asia
  8% in Africa
  7% in South Asia Pacific
  Less than 3% in Europe

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Re:Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest continues to plunge by tourmalinetaco on Wednesday September 13, 2023 @07:53PM (#37503171)

We have absolutely not run out of trees. 31% of land is still covered by trees, 66% of what it was before agricultural development. It’s more accurate to say we have run out of a need for deforestation.

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Re:Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest continues to plunge by southernplaces7 on Thursday September 14, 2023 @07:47AM (#37507655)

The definitions in the Wikipedia article also state other figures. For one thing, in another part of it, they state that "Barely one-third (34 percent) of the world's forests are primary forests." After centuries of industrialization and explosive population growth in the human species, that percentage is surprisingly decent.

Secondly for your U.S. figure, bear in mind that their baseline for the age of the cleared forests is almost 400 years. Even among trees, many don't live that long. You could easily have a truly ancient forest by any measure, that hasn't seen invasive human presence in centuries, filled with extremely old trees, but consider it what, secondary forest just because it's from the early 1700's instead of the 1600s?

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