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Google says there's 3+ trillion trees. Half as many as when humans came on the scene, but more than 100 years ago, so that's a positive trend on the environment
by goatlover 5y ago
Google says there's 3+ trillion trees. Half as many as when humans came on the scene, but more than 100 years ago, so that's a positive trend on the environmental front.
- pvaldes 5y agoBiomass is not number of individuals. I could have 10.000 trees at home if I would want it. I can assure you that Google earth still show trees that were chopped some years ago; and sadly both wildfires and megafires are very real currently.
- goatlover 5y agoGoogle is getting their count from a Nature or Scientific American article which mentions that the number of trees is calculated from "421,529 measurements from 50 countries on six continents". Fires also clear away old growth so new trees can have a chance, and trees native to fire-prone areas have evolved fire resistance. In addition, some pine cone seeds are released by fire. As for the net loss or gain, you'd have to subtract how many trees died in the fires from how many new saplings there are annually. The world is a big place. It's perfectly possible for a billion trees lost in one region to be offset by a billion new trees elsewhere.
- pvaldes 5y agoVery sad, but not unexpected