Deforestation—myth?

[Mk]

I'm still looking on deforestation. In North America, it is definitely false, but what about in Africa, and in South American tropical rainforests. Anyone wanna help me look?

[Ivan Seeking]

I'm still looking on deforestation. In North America, it is definitely false,

A tree farm is not a forest. There is no diversity.

[matthyaouw]

I'm still looking on deforestation. In North America, it is definitely false, but what about in Africa, and in South American tropical rainforests. Anyone wanna help me look?

Care to elaborate?

[Mk]

I don't feel like it. Maybe tomorrow. Sorry.

I saw a tree farm one time. It was all Christmas trees. Its like a forest of Christmas. :cry: So beautiful. Actually it wasn't.

[jim mcnamara]

As an aside - a myth is a story that humans use explain the world to each other. At least that wass the primary meaning - now it's degenerated into a derogatory term - it means a completely false tale, in a perjorative sense.

You do realize that cultural anthropologists categorize any story that explains how we (us humans) came to be as a creation myth. That includes the story in Genesis.

-- just a pet peeve about words going down the sewer..... :)

[jim mcnamara]

Oh - I meant to answer - desertification and deforestation are quantifiable.
That means we can get real numbers - in this case percent of land that has gone from 100% vegetative cover and remain at 10% percent over time, using infared satellite imagery taken over longer periods of time.

For example, tropical rainforest soils (lateritic soils), when they experience clearcut over very large areas actually turn into something akin to ceramic.
They become much less permeable, and plants have a tough time repopulating those areas. So they stay pretty much bare for long periods of time. If you do this to several hundred thousand acres of land every year and it does not grow back, why, then this shows up in satellite images.

Just because you don't see it personally does not mean it has no substance to it.

[robphy]

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Deforestation/
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2005/amazon_deforest.html

[jim mcnamara]

Thanks robphy, I "mythed" putting up some links.

[Mk]

Thanks for the links robphy, it looks like the Amazonian rainforest is shrinking slightly. What about data from before 30 years ago?