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Earth Home To 3 Trillion Trees, Half As Many As When Human Civilization Arose

Posted by Soulskill on from the took-them-a-while-to-fill-out-census-forms dept.

sciencehabit writes: Earth today supports more than 3 trillion trees—eight times as many as we thought a decade ago. But that number is rapidly shrinking, according to a global tree survey released today (abstract). We are losing 15 billion trees a year to toilet paper, timber, farmland expansion, and other human needs. So even though the total count is large, the decline is "a cause for concern," says Tom Spies, a forest ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service in Corvallis, Oregon, who was not involved with the work.

3 of 269 comments (clear)

  1. Three Seashells by The+Rizz · · Score: 5, Funny

    We are losing 15 billion trees a year to toilet paper

    Looks like it's time to institute the Three Seashells.

  2. Re:Toilet paper and timber? by pr0fessor · · Score: 4, Funny

    If you would like to have more trees build a chain link fence... Mine appears to grow plenty of trees.

  3. Yeah but we have like 3 trillion more than mars by netsavior · · Score: 4, Funny

    Earth is still #1 in trees!