What is the deforestation rate on Earth?
World population currently stands at 6.5 billion people. It is projected to grow to 9 billion by 2042. The expansion of agricultural and industrial needs, population growth, poverty, landless and consumer demand are the major driving forces behind deforestation. Most deforestation is due to conversion of forests to agricultural land. Global removals of wood for timber and fuel amounted to 3.1 billion cubic meters in 2005. Worldwide, deforestation continues at an alarming rate, about 13 million hectares per year, an area the size of Greece or Nicaragua. The current rate of destruction is 2.47 acres/second, which is approximately two US football fields. Expanded, that amounts to 64 acres/min, 3,800/hour, 93,000/day, 2.8 million/month, and 33.8 million acres per year. Africa and South America have the largest net loss of forests. In Africa it is estimated that nearly half of the forest loss was due to removal of wood fuel. Forests in Europe are expanding. Asia, which had a net loss in the
