3 ms·

Another fun fact: there are more trees on Earth (3×10¹²) [1] than stars in the Milky Way (1-4×10¹¹). [1] "Mapping tree density at a global scale" https://www.n

• dataflow 3y ago
  That fact sounds like it will become fiction very very soon. :\
  • fukpaywalls2 3y ago
    On the postive side, there's probably more microplastics in our oceans than there are stars in all of the galaxies summed together.
    • sp332 3y ago
      Ocean microplastics were probably overestimated. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-plastic-litter-oceans-overestimated-persist.html https://phys.org/news/2023-08-plastic-litter-oceans-overesti... Most plastic in the oceans is in larger chunks… so far anyway.
  • joshuahedlund 3y ago
    Maybe not. Deforestation rates peaked in the 80’s https://ourworldindata.org/global-deforestation-peak https://ourworldindata.org/global-deforestation-peak
• tamimio 3y ago
  Have another fact since we are talking about trees, wood is the rarest element in the universe, even more rare than diamonds, in fact, wood can only be found on earth! A piece of me dies every time I see someone cutting a tree for useless reasons.
  • Solvency 3y ago
    Wood isn't an element?
  • explaininjs 3y ago
    Do you think cutting a tree annihilates the wood?
  • wholinator2 3y ago
    Yeah sorry to be kinda pedantic but wood is not an element, it's just a material. And if we're talking rarity of materials there are undoubtedly much much rarer materials, like LK99 for instance. In fact, even if we're talking elements themselves, there are elements with halflives of picoseconds. I can't know for sure but i'd bet those elements are more rare than wood. And since I'm extending the analogy, how do we know wood is the rarest? We can't really get a good look at exoplanets yet, they're still just fuzzy balls to us like pluto used to be. Trees could be an evolutionary essential step. Anyways, it's a nice thought but could probably be phrased in a way to defeat pedants like me. Merry Christmas <3
• ben_w 3y ago
  Depends on your definition of "tree". My follow-up fun fact is that even though "tree", like "fish", is a term of common parlance, there is no universally recognised and precise definition of the category, either botanically or in common language.
  • a_gnostic 3y ago
    What's a tree? In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are usable as lumber or plants above a specified height. In the words of Justice Potter Stewart: "I know it when I see it." (1964)