NEWS FLASH: U.S. Lost 88,000 Acres of Natural Forests Last Week

by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

NEWS FLASH: 

The United States lost over 88,000 acres of natural forests last week. The world's tropical rainforests lost 200,000 acres just yesterday.

[NEWS UPDATE: Rate of deforestation in 2023 halved in Amazon rainforest: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67962297 ]

An aerial photo released by Greenpeace shows smoke billowing from forest fires in the Amazon basin in northwestern Brazil.

 

(Victor Moriyama / AFP-Getty Images)

If you missed seeing the headlines, it's because this wasn't reported. This isn't news. The U.S. loses 88,000 acres of forest every week, and tropical forests are disappearing at a rate of 200,000 acres daily.
At current rates, no forests will be left in America in 135 years. Half of the world's tropical forests are already gone and will be gone entirely within 100 years at the current rate. Amazon rainforest alone produces 20% of our global oxygen and removes huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Agriculture is said to be the leading cause of deforestation, but the real underlying cause is our exponential population growth. 

We reached 8 billion people living here at once. The planet cannot sustain the current rate at which we consume natural resources. What is the biggest driver of overpopulation? Impoverishment and scarcity of food and healthcare. There is a correlation between family size and survival uncertainties. The more people fear for their children's survival, the more children they have to ensure survival. Global wealth disparity is a major contributing factor.

Hunger and poverty in the world are not just caused by a lack of food or production but by the unequal and unfair distribution of human essentials. In the U.S. alone, 38% of all food goes unsold or uneaten. That means 149 billion meals end up in landfills each year. The scale of the problem is similar in Europe and many parts of the world.

 
So, the best place to start addressing all of these issues is by reducing wealth inequality on a global scale. Distributive injustice is the root cause of global impoverishment. There is enough food and other goods produced for everyone to have a basic sufficiency. Global impoverishment causes survival uncertainties that result in overpopulation in third-world countries. Overpopulation puts stress on natural resources and the need for more farmland. Families living in the Amazon rainforest slash and burn acres of land each year to feed and care for their families. The loss of natural forests accelerates global warming and the loss of species due to the destruction of their habitat. This is a death spiral that we can and must fix.