Tuesday, September 11, 2018

The planet's forests are growing much larger.

Based on 35 years’ worth of satellite imagery, we learn that since 1982 global forest cover has increasedby 7.2 percent, or 2.24 million kilometers.  

"We show that—contrary to the prevailing view that forest area has declined globally5—tree cover has increased by 2.24 million km2 (+7.1% relative to the 1982 level). This overall net gain is the result of a net loss in the tropics being outweighed by a net gain in the extratropics. Global bare ground cover has decreased by 1.16 million km2 (−3.1%), most notably in agricultural regions in Asia. Of all land changes, 60% are associated with direct human activities and 40% with indirect drivers such as climate change. Land-use change exhibits regional dominance, including tropical deforestation and agricultural expansion, temperate reforestation or afforestation, cropland intensification and urbanization. Consistently across all climate domains, montane systems have gained tree cover..."

5 comments:

  1. I have had a copy of Dr. Dixie Lee Ray's Trashing The Planet since the
    90s. I use it to refresh my memory when debating tree huggers. Her
    book refutes every single argument the environmental left spouts as
    irrefutable fact.

    Not only is CO2 a harmless gas, it is essential to all animal and plant
    life on the planet. In her chapter on global warming, she stated that
    elevated levels of CO2 results in explosive groth in flora. There is
    far more woodland in America than there was before Columbus arrive on
    the scene.

    There are a lot of factors like replanting, the ability to fight forest
    fires, etc. Back in the 90s I also belonged to a computer club. The
    sister of the guy who managed the club BBS was taking college classes
    in environmentalism. She contended that the Amazon Forest was in danger
    of being stripped clean. Knowing that was a total myth, I challenged her
    to find some sattelite images take over to prove her assertions.

    She never got back to me. She really got her Kotex in a wad when I made
    some insensitive comment about the French Navy sinking the Greenpeace
    ship Rainbow warrior. My respose was that harassing fishing boats is
    fairly safe, but screwing with a warship not so much!

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    1. Haven't heard anyone referencing the Fox Island pig farmer in many years. Brilliant woman, if not a bubble off plumb.

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  2. That doesn't square at all with the 'progressive' narrative that the last tree will be cut down this year.

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  4. It has been known scientifically since the 70's that the tropical forests are actually oxygen thieves. It is the sub-tropical and temperate forests that produce more oxygen than they use.

    Then there's the whole 'Native Americans were great environmentalists' line of fallacious reasoning. Not enough time or space to talk about how wrong that statement is.

    But facts don't matter, it's all about feelings...

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