Althouse: The are 3 trillion trees on earth.

September 2, 2015

The are 3 trillion trees on earth.

8 times as many as previously thought.

420 for every person.

IN THE COMMENTS: Drago said: "If you could be any number of trees, which number would you be?"

58 comments:

Original Mike said...: "420 for every person."

What shall I do with my trees?; 9/2/15, 5:34 PM
khesanh0802 said...: Now let's review the "Facts" about global warming!; 9/2/15, 5:34 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: I credit Richard Nixon -- he created the EPA in 1970.; 9/2/15, 5:35 PM
madAsHell said...: Somehow, this will be twisted into part of the problem that needs to be solved immediately.; 9/2/15, 5:35 PM
Henry said...: "So, it's not good news for the world or bad news that we've produced this new number."

I love that. That's a very Zen statement. I wish all scientists would say that to all reporters.

"We've gotta play them one day at a time. I'm just happy to be here. Hope I can help the ballpark. I just want to give it my best shot and the good Lord willing things will work out."; 9/2/15, 5:39 PM
Henry said...: "As more information becomes available for these countries, it might be interesting to refine the estimates and check that key processes shaping spatial variability in tree density have not been overlooked."

That's another totally awesome scientific statement.; 9/2/15, 5:40 PM
Scott said...: I read the news today oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.; 9/2/15, 5:43 PM
Static Ping said...: So do I get to name them?; 9/2/15, 5:46 PM
Scott said...: Yeah. The people who brought you the International Star Registry is introducing the International Tree Registry shortly.; 9/2/15, 5:48 PM
Original Mike said...: Anybody got bristlecones? I'll trade you three ashes for a bristlecone.; 9/2/15, 5:55 PM
Bob Boyd said...: And every tree is a potential stump.
Earth First! We can log the other planets later.; 9/2/15, 6:49 PM
David said...: So . . .

Forests matter. We must preserve them. The deforestation of the last 100 years is a crisis leading to all sorts of bad stuff, like greenhouse gasses and global warming.

There are eight times as many trees in the world than scientists previously thought. The consensus on the number of trees has to change. But that's ok. It was a mutable consensus, not an immutable one like anthropogenic global warming.

But these extra trees mean nothing in terms of the other issues. Pay No Attention To The Trees Behind The Curtain. They are irrelevant, because there is a crisis and the consensus about that crisis is immutable.

Global warming, meet global worming.; 9/2/15, 7:02 PM
Carnifex said...: Quick! there's no time!! Doom is pending!! For the children!! Do you people not realize that trees produce oxygen!! And oxygen is poisonous!!11111!! If you breathe too much oxygen you DIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We need a government program to cull the trees! Reduce their deadly numbers!! Black lives matter!! All lives matter!! ITS FOR THE CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!; 9/2/15, 7:30 PM
JackWayne said...: C'mon folks. Obama promised to stop the oceans from rising and heal the planet. Missions accomplished. He even threw in stopping glaciers from melting in the summer as a freebie. Time for another round of golf.; 9/2/15, 7:31 PM
dbp said...: 420? That sounds high.; 9/2/15, 7:37 PM
dbp said...: The researchers must have been stoned.; 9/2/15, 7:37 PM
RecChief said...: hmmm....so I don't have to worry when I cut down that enormous white oak and make a table and chairs out of it?; 9/2/15, 7:44 PM
Birkel said...: dbp:
Pretty sure the scientists must be stoned... For their heresy against Gaia...; 9/2/15, 7:47 PM
kcom said...: I saw Dr. McCoy wandering around on the planet somewhere. But then he went into the woods and I couldn't see DeForest for de trees.; 9/2/15, 7:51 PM
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...: I thought the Science was Settled, at 375 Billion.

========

Professor to entering Freshmen in Earth Science class: "Who wants to hazard a guess about the age of the Earth?"

Student in back, raises hand.

Prof: "Yes?"

Student: "Four billion and one years old."

Prof (somewhat nonplussed): "And you arrived at that number, how?"

Student" "I was in this class last year and didn't pass, so I'm taking it again. Last year you said the Earth was four billion years old."; 9/2/15, 7:52 PM
Humperdink said...: I have 38 acres of mostly forest. Probably cut and skidded 100 trees. Eastern hemlock, red oak and black cherry. Over the last 20 years I have built a barn, a two car garage, added a large family room, a 60' porch, and sold the excess.

Go into the woods today and you would be hard pressed to see any impact whatsoever.; 9/2/15, 7:56 PM
Michael K said...: It's all that CO2 making them grow and prosper. Can't have that.; 9/2/15, 8:00 PM
gadfly said...: Most of those trees are grown on Wisconsin farms and are genetically engineered to make paper but as you can see while driving through the hinterlands that we are also preventing deforestation. Out West, we use all those trees to keep firefighters employed - 95 forest fires and counting.; 9/2/15, 8:29 PM
commoncents said...: Bill O'Reilly Talking Point Memo - Iran Nuclear Deal is a bad deal

http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2015/09/bill-oreilly-talking-point-memo-iran.html; 9/2/15, 8:32 PM
MathMom said...: I only have about 120 trees. Who is going to give me the 300 trees to which I'm entitled?

And more trees are appearing, frozen, from under the retreating glaciers. How is this possible? Maybe because the glaciers advanced and killed the forests. Now, the forests have a chance to fight back.

And in case anyone is deluded by the Lying Sack of Excrement who doubles as our preznit, Exit Glacier began retreating in 1815. There is a sign showing the extend of Exit Glacier in 1815, which is near the current day highway, but Our Obama only showed us the sign from 1961, making the retreat of Exit Glacier the fault of the Chevy Suburban.

Here is the part the POS didn't show.

When I lived there, one summer a woman walked up to the face of Exit Glacier (never do that...) and it calved on her and killed her. Obama wants homicidal glaciers to be protected.; 9/2/15, 8:38 PM
rastajenk said...: The Lorax needs to find a new cause.; 9/2/15, 8:42 PM
YoungHegelian said...: Considering that it was estimated before that one out of three trees was out there in the Siberian taiga, I'm not surprised that they weren't that well counted.

I mean, it's coooooooold out there for most of the year, and it's just so far away from damn near everything!; 9/2/15, 8:53 PM
William said...: This time they included the trees in the bonsai nurseries. That puffed the number considerably.; 9/2/15, 9:02 PM
traditionalguy said...: The Arborists enforcing Tree Ordinances in a City that is literally tree covered are the latest Dem City governance scam in Atlanta. It is illegal to cut one of the hundreds of trees in your yard without a legal bribe to the required cohorts of the Professional Arborist...professional at Mafia like protection racquet that is.

You love trees, don't you. No pay the money to the assigned bagmen, succors.; 9/2/15, 9:04 PM
The Godfather said...: "Europe used to be almost covered by one giant forest and now it's almost entirely fields and grasslands. Humans are absolutely controlling tree densities," Dr Crowther told BBC News.

I had no idea that the Neanderthals generated so much carbon pollution.; 9/2/15, 9:06 PM
Chris N said...: Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails!; 9/2/15, 9:39 PM
Anonymous said...: "What is abundantly clear from the study is the influence humans now have on the number of trees on Earth. The team estimates we are removing about 15 billion a year, with perhaps only five billion being planted back."

"The net loss is about a third of a percent of the current number of trees globally," said co-author Dr Henry Glick."

What is abundantly clear from the study is that Henry Glick has his head six feet up his ass.

How is it possible that "yesterday" we were told the rain forests ("the Earth's lungs") were dying, that trees across the world were being felled to excess, imperiling mankind---and NOW be told that there are actually bazillions more trees than thought?

NEVER MIND!

How further can we accept the cockamamie notion that we are not replacing the trees we harvest----when the real number of trees in the world is eight time more than thought? WHO CAN VOUCH FOR THE ACCURACY OF >ANY< OF THESE "ESTIMATES"??

After all, there are very likely more robust economic statistics on tree harvesting worldwidethan ---apparently---the number of potential trees to harvest. The number of trees has risen eight-fold, but those statistics have not!!!

So if the new tree numbers are remotely accurate, then the human impact on cutting trees down is actually LESS than thought.

"A third of a percent loss per year" means it would take 300 years to cut DOWN all the world's trees ---a stupid idea that assumes no change in the number/range of forests over time, climate stasis, no development of alternative building materials, and ignores the left's hand wringing about "global warming": Does global warming mean fewer trees over time? If so, why are tropical jungles so full of trees?

You Green Weenies have a lot to answer for.; 9/2/15, 10:18 PM
MathMom said...: "a stupid idea that assumes no change in the number/range of forests over time"

I live in the Piney Woods of Texas. When we moved here it was densely forested, and I thought it had always been that way. Turns out where I live was farmland around the time of the Civil War, in cotton and tobacco.

If you clear a building lot here, then change your mind and don't do anything with the land, in 10 years it has large pines on it, and hardwoods that are coming along nicely.

Squirrels see to it that the empty lots get replanted.; 9/2/15, 10:30 PM
sane_voter said...: "What is abundantly clear from the study is the influence humans now have on the number of trees on Earth. The team estimates we are removing about 15 billion a year, with perhaps only five billion being planted back."

So is Henry Glick implying that only humans can seed a tree if they cut a tree down? No, nature can't possibly do that.

I seem to remember the term "nature abhors a vacuum." And if a bunch of trees are cut down, many more grow in the space vacated by those trees.; 9/2/15, 10:49 PM
Original Mike said...: "The team estimates we are removing about 15 billion a year, with perhaps only five billion being planted back."

Of course. Couldn't ask for money if there weren't a deficit.; 9/2/15, 10:59 PM
Drago said...: If you could be any number of trees, which number would you be?; 9/3/15, 12:05 AM
theo said...: I live in rural upstate NY. There are pictures of my family's homestead from one hundred years ago and there were a lot less trees in those old photos.

Now there is a forest except for the areas that have been farmed on a lessening basis. Original stone walls are now in the deep woods.

We've cut furniture quality cherry and its accompanied firewood over the years. We cut it on previously cleared farm land. Aside from some skid trails the forest is still there.

It is sad that people try to inventory trees for political means instead of using the resources in a well managed way.

I assume those tree inventoryists don't spend as much time in the woods as they do online and in urban coffee shops.

Only fools try to inventory living things they know nothing about.; 9/3/15, 12:11 AM
Paul said...: 8 times more than previously thought?

I thought the science was settled?; 9/3/15, 3:19 AM
Meade said...: And now...
number 420
The Larch; 9/3/15, 5:42 AM
Original Mike said...: The. Larch.; 9/3/15, 5:54 AM
PB said...: All that CO2 is causing things to grow out of control. Time for a little thinning out!; 9/3/15, 6:18 AM
damikesc said...: Environmentalists can't even count trees properly.

Yeah, they got their evidence and all down cold.

When the number of trees is eight times higher than you thought, you might have some fundamental problems with your evidence.; 9/3/15, 6:40 AM
dbp said...: 420

I wonder how much they fudged the data so that it wasn't 419 or 421.; 9/3/15, 7:16 AM
Michael Fitzgerald said...: Los Angeles is one of the most tree-filled cities I have ever seen. Check out old Charlie Chaplin movies. Less than one hundred years ago, los Angeles looked like a desert. Check out old pictures of Israel's founding. In 1948 it was a desert. Now it's full of fruit trees and palms. Trees grow easy.; 9/3/15, 8:15 AM
Susan said...: They tell me that trees existed pre-mankind. I find that a little difficult to believe. Who planted them before people? The dinosaurs?; 9/3/15, 8:16 AM
Kyzer SoSay said...: Carnifex @ 7:30

Winner, IMHO.; 9/3/15, 8:38 AM
TosaGuy said...: I read in the article that we cut down a bunch of trees but only replant about 1/3....the fact that trees also reproduce by themselves is not mentioned.

I have 7 acres of forest on my property consisting of several species. Trees will pretty much replace themselves on their own. The problem comes in (locally) is that about 1/4 are ash and the emerald ash borer is fulfilling my supply of firewood for the next 10 years -- well before that natural death of those trees. Preferred trees like oak take a bit of coaxing, as well as pruning of adjacent faster-growing trees, to get started. Managing a mini forest is a lot of fun and you can see a lot of change in a short period of time.; 9/3/15, 8:48 AM
kcom said...: "They tell me that trees existed pre-mankind. I find that a little difficult to believe. Who planted them before people? The dinosaurs?"

See, Tyrannosaurus Rexes would walk along dragging their tails behind them to make a furrow. The other dinosaurs would come along and plant the tree seeds.; 9/3/15, 9:09 AM
mikee said...: I live near Austin Texas. When we are not having drought years, the invasive mesquite and native ash and junipers can sprout and be a yard high in one season, and beyond that age they are almost impossible to eradicate.

If we had more rain we'd live in a jungle here.

Yeah, trees reproduce by themselves.; 9/3/15, 12:22 PM
Cynicus said...: So trees are removing 8x the CO2 previously thought and adding 8x the oxygen. My goodness. What if Mother Earth and God solve man made climate change without human help! What if humans don't control the planet or the weather! Mind blown!; 9/3/15, 12:29 PM
Jaq said...: The first estimate, as an order of magnitude type thing, like, "Without using Google, how many piano tuners do you think there are in NYC?" type question, wasn't terrible.; 9/3/15, 12:56 PM
Jaq said...: I know trees are a renewable resource, but it is nice to go to places like Lake George, that has been a resort area for a long time, and see the really old hardwoods.

In 50 years, I think that the reforestation of New England, after the clear cutting first for the potash from burning the trees, to the abandonment of vegetable farming for the Boston and New York markets once refrigerated trains got invented, will bring back a stately beauty that we only see glimpses of now.; 9/3/15, 1:01 PM
Jaq said...: So how soon do we cut the last one and end up like those islanders out of guano?; 9/3/15, 1:04 PM
Original Mike said...: "...a stately beauty that we only see glimpses of now."

I visit three or four old growth forests in the upper Midwest. There is nothing more magnificent.; 9/3/15, 4:58 PM
Rusty said...: Want to see and old growth forest?

Try the bottom of Ashland harbor.; 9/3/15, 8:15 PM
Original Mike said...: Rusty, Ashland Wisconsin?; 9/3/15, 9:59 PM
Original Mike said...: Oh, I get it. Not exactly magnificent.; 9/3/15, 10:07 PM
Kirby Olson said...: Still not as many trees as there are dollars in our national debt.; 9/3/15, 10:55 PM