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Analysis and Environment

Global tree loss is undermining tactics to address the climate crisis

By Adam Vaughan

31 March 2021

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Logs stacked at a lumber mill surrounded by deforested fields in Brazil

Andre Penner/AP/Shutterstock

World leaders love to present trees as the answer to our climate change woes. And scientists calculate Earth has room for another 0.9 billion hectares of trees, which could buy us an extra 20 years to decarbonise our societies as they lock up our emitted carbon. But many countries are terrible at even holding on to their existing, carbon-rich trees.

Satellite data shows the world lost 4.2 million hectares of undisturbed rainforest last year, up 12 per cent on 2019, according to the US non-profit…

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