Trees are some of the most prominent and important organisms on the planet, trees provide a wide range of important ecosystem services for humans. They store water and nutrients, stabilize the soil, provide habitats for plants and animals, offset the impacts of climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide and they generate the oxygen that we need to breath.

Thomas Crowther

Categorized in : Environment

It will take decades for new forests to mature and achieve this potential, it is vitally important that we protect the forests that exist today, pursue other climate solutions and continue to phase out fossil fuels from our economies in order to avoid dangerous climate change.

Thomas Crowther

Trees are among the most prominent and critical organisms on Earth, yet we are only recently beginning to comprehend their global extent and distribution, they store huge amounts of carbon, are essential for the cycling of nutrients, for water and air quality, and for countless human services.

Thomas Crowther

They store huge amounts of carbon, are essential for the cycling of nutrients, for water and air quality, and for countless human services, yet you ask people to estimate, within an order of magnitude, how many trees there are and they don't know where to begin. I don't know what I would have guessed, but I was certainly surprised to find that we were talking about trillions.

Thomas Crowther

We've nearly halved the number of trees on the planet, and we've seen the impacts on climate and human health as a result, this study highlights how much more effort is needed if we are to restore healthy forests worldwide.

Thomas Crowther

There are currently fewer trees than at any point since the start of human civilization and this number is still falling at an alarming rate, if anything, the scale of these numbers just highlights the need to step up our efforts if we are going to begin to repair some of these effects on a global scale.

Thomas Crowther