10 Forest and Climate Change Facts

This powerful list of facts comes from Conservation International.

4 - hours in which the world loses acres of tropical forest equivalent in size to the island of Manhattan

20 - percent of all global CO2 emissions caused by deforestation

2 trillion - amount in dollars that burning and clearing forests costs the global economy every year as valued through lost fresh water, food and timber and carbon reduction

70 - number of species of South and Central American frogs that have gone extinct, likely due to climate change

95 - percent of living coral Australia’s Great Barrier Reef may lose by 2050 due to climate change

25 - percent of all land animals and plants at risk of extinction due to climate change

25 - percent of all emissions reductions called for by 2050 that could be achieved by conserving and restoring tropical forests

143 million - acres of forest Conservation International has helped conserve over the last three years

40 - number of cars, trucks and SUVs’ yearly emissions offset by conserving just one acre of threatened tropical forest

15 - the cost in dollars for protecting one acre of forest with Conservation International.

... So buy recycled paper products! Re-use and recycle writing paper! And, if you can afford it, log on to the Conservation International website to protect an acre or more of tropical rainforest from destruction at a minimum cost of U.S. $15 . I did that in lieu of giving Christmas presents this year. So far, 18,234 acres have been protected in Madagascar and Peru. (warning: the site is a little bit funky in that it appeared that I accidentally purchased more acres than I intended, but it turned out they were not actually charged to my credit card. I have lodged a complaint about this glitch.)