Bad news: A new United Nations report reveals that, in the last 25 years, the world has lost a whopping 500,000 square miles of forest — the equivalent of the state of Texas twice over, and nearly the size of South Africa.
The good news: That same report notes that there is an "encouraging" slowing in the rates of deforestation.
While losing two Texases worth of forest is certainly not a good thing, put in perspective, our planet is losing forest at a slower rate than in years past. The Washington Post reports that "globally, while .18 percent of the world's forests were vanishing annually in the 1990s, only .08 percent was lost annually from 2010 to 2015."
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Still, the slowdown may be too little, too late. The report noted deforestation's significant contribution to climate change, specifically in carbon dioxide emissions. Over the last 25 years, the world's forests, which store 296 billion tons of carbon, have lost 17.4 billion tons.
"Fundamental changes in how we think about forests are needed," Kerry Cesaro, senior director of forests at the World Wildlife Fund, said. "And they are needed in the next few years. Not 15 years. Not 20 years. Otherwise, we will continue to lose forests at the rate of eight football fields every 10 seconds."
