Facts about Global Deforestation and Climate Change

• Almost 20% of all global CO2 emissions are caused by deforestation
• 25% of all emissions reductions called for by 2050 could be achieved by conserving and restoring tropical forests
• People who are cutting down trees (i.e.-illegal loggers in Borneo, soy growers in Brazil, subsistence farmers in Laos) together send as much carbon into the atmosphere as do all the activities of the entire U.S. (factories, vehicles, buildings, farming, power plants, etc.)
• Standing forests provide invaluable social goods: clean air and water, biodiversity, climate regulation
• Every four hours the world loses tropical forest equivalent in size to the island of Manhattan
• At present rates, about 13 million hectares (or 5.25 million acres) of forest are being destroyed every year
• The negative effects of clearing forests, in addition to climate change, include: endangered species grow more endangered; others go extinct; rivers fill with silt; water supplies are diminished or dry up; fires spread; poverty worsens
• 1.6 billion people in the developing tropics depend on the world's forests for their income, food and fuel
• By 2050, it's estimated that 9 billion people will inhabit the planet (about 40% more than today). Eight billion of them will likely live in developing countries. Most of these are located in the tropics, where the most important-and most threatened-forests are found
• If current cutting rates continue (and, if unchecked, they're sure to grow), economically accessible mature natural forests in Papua New Guinea will be gone in 16 years or less; Indonesia and Myanmar in about 10 years; the Philippines and Thailand have already logged out most of their natural forests
• By conserving just ONE acre of threatened tropical forest - the yearly emissions of 40 cars, trucks and SUV's can be offset
• 2 trillion dollars per year is the cost to the global economy of burning and clearing forests, as valued through lost fresh water, food and timber, and carbon reduction