Zee Media Bureau/Udita Madan
Trees have been known for their benefits to humankind and animals alike, which is why this news comes like a breath of fresh air – literally.
According to the most comprehensive census yet of global forestation, there are slightly more than three trillion trees in the world, a figure that overshadows previous estimates.
A team led by researchers at Yale University created the first globally comprehensive map of tree density using satellite imagery as well as ground-based measurements from around the world.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Henry Glick, co-director of the Ucross High Plains Stewardship Initiative, a research program within the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, said that, “The map was generated using 429,775 ground-based measurements in more than 50 countries, collected from a variety of sources, including the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the National Forest Inventory and several peer-reviewed studies”.
However, the steady growth of the world's population has effected our leafy friends. According to the international team, which consisted of experts from 15 countries, people are having an “overwhelming” impact on the world’s forests. Human activities have resulted in the decline of nearly half the world’s trees, which is almost 45.8%.
The Guardian quoted Thomas Crowther of Yale University and the lead author of the study saying that, “The scale of the human impact [we found] was astronomical. The number of trees cut down is almost 3tn since the start of civilization.”
