At least three-quarters of the forests of the world have been cut down or damaged, says the New York Times in a two-page story that says, “In the battle to limit the risks of climate change, it has been clear for decades that focusing on the world’s immense tropical forests — saving the ones that are left, and perhaps letting new ones grow — is the single most promising near-term strategy.” The story uses Costa Rica, Brazil and Indonesia as examples of resurgent forests.
Forests often are cleared to make room for agriculture and to feed the growing population. “Saving forests, if it can be done, will require producing food much more intensively, on less land,” says the Times. One leading figure in the discussion “has argued for turning some 1.2 billion acres of degraded or marginally productive agricultural land into forests,” an area equal to half of the United States, says the newspaper.