Posted on 11/13/2006 11:34:11 PM PST by MadIvan
FEARS of a "skinhead" Earth devoid of any trees appear to be unfounded, according to new research which shows forests making a comeback in China and India.
An international team of scientists, including Aberdeen University academic Professor Alexander Mather, found that 22 out of the world's 50 most forested countries were now increasing the amount of woodland and predicted that a "great restoration of the landscape" could begin by 2050.
While global forests are still in decline, China, Vietnam and Spain have seen significant net increases from 1990 to 2005 and India's forests are now stable.
Jesse Ausubel, director of the programme for the human environment at Rockefeller University in the US, said: "Earth suffered an epidemic of de-forestation. Now humans may help spread an epidemic of forest restoration.
"This great reversal in land use could stop the styling of a 'skinhead Earth', expanding the global forest by 10 per cent, about 300 million hectares, the area of India."
The researchers said the point at which the world started planting more trees than it felled depended largely on Brazil and Indonesia, where huge areas of tropical forests are still being rapidly cut and cleared.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
Oh,, this is not good,, not good at all.. (/sarc)
"Oi, Mars! You lookin' at me bird? 'Ere, Venus! 'Oo wants a curry, then?"
So, clear land plus extra carbon dioxide in the air equals more new trees.
Jeez, whoda thought?
Or maybe he just burped up his soul... Hmmm...
Bush is losing the war on treeorism!
He needs to step up the sales from that timber company Kerry says he owns.
No way. Nothing ever improves once the environmentalist find a problem. There has got to be a gimmick here. I cannot accept this at face value.
I think that I shall never seeJoyce Kilmer
A poem lovely as a tree.A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;Upon whose bosom snow has lain,
Who intimately lives with rain.Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
Of course they don't bother mentioning that the US has increased forest cover drastically over the last century, or so.
What stupidity these liberals come with. Any picture of California from 100 years ago compared with modern pictures of the same places shows massive reforestation. Even including the 40% lost of High Sierra pines caused by the bug infestation of the last decade. That massive bug loss was because the Sierra Club sued to protect the standing dead trees and caused the infestation to swing wildly out of control.
Except for the Sierra Club, everybody loves forests...
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