Posted on 09/02/2015 11:23:33 AM PDT by BenLurkin
There are just over three trillion trees in the world, a figure that dwarfs previous estimates, according to the most comprehensive census yet of global forestation.
Using satellite imagery as well as ground-based measurements from around the world, a team led by researchers at Yale University created the first globally comprehensive map of tree density. Their findings were published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
A previous study that drew on satellite imagery estimated that the total number of trees was around 400 billion. The new estimate of 3.04 trillion is multiple times that number, bringing the ratio of trees per person to 422 to 1.
While the density of foliage was surprisingly high overall, the researchers cautioned that global vegetation is still in decline. The number of trees on Earth has fallen by 46% since the beginning of human civilization, according to the report. The researchers said they believed the findings would provide a valuable baseline for future research on environment and ecosystems.
“The previous information that we had about the global forest system all came from satellite images...we’re using all this information to provide more detailed understanding of what’s going on below the surface [of the canopy],” said Thomas Crowther, a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the lead author of the study. “The numbers that we’ve generated are going to be useful for a wide variety of applications.”
The map was generated using 429,775 ground-based measurements in more than 50 countries, collected from a variety of sources, including the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the National Forest Inventory and several peer-reviewed studies, said Henry Glick, co-director of the Ucross High Plains Stewardship Initiative, a research program within the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Trees are loaded with carbon.
Pass it on.
Wouldn’t that be like an extra blanket of insulation, warming the earth up? OMG, WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!
And, if you add in the number of alleged humans who are as dumb as trees, the figure gets even higher.
What’s up with that? Were they hiding in caves or something?
So estimates of naturally produced CO2 vs man-made are off by an order of magnitude, given that trees are the largest source by far of CO2?
Global Warming -> Higher CO2 -> More and More Trees -> Humanity overwhelmed by Trees -> DEATH
Coming soon to a college course, the NYT and many others.
Oh goodie! More of them for libs to hug
I recall and old Rush segment from long ago, where he was TRUMPETING similar findings just for the North American continent alone, since the colonial days.
That must be an old map because I remember back in the 90s, we were pounded with how man was cutting down the Rainforest the equivelant of 1000 football fields a day.
And anyone who called BS was mocked and impugned.
So clearly there is no rainforest left, except at the Rainforest Cafe
Another environmentalist lie shot to pieces.
Bingo!
not subscribing to the WSJ but here is another link.
Good. Now I can feel less guilty about having four trees cut down in my yard recently. (Three were too close to the house, the fourth was a Bosnian pine tree which I suspected of Islamist sympathies.)
Obviously I was wrong.
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