Global forest losses accelerated despite the pandemic, threatening world’s climate goals

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/03/31/climate-change-deforestation/

Source: By Chris Mooney, Brady Dennis, and John Muyskens, The Washington Post. 

Excerpt: Loss of vital forests in the tropics increased by 12 percent between 2019 and 2020, a satellite-based survey found. ...The Earth saw nearly 100,000 square miles of lost tree cover last year — an area roughly the size of Colorado — according to the satellite-based survey by Global Forest Watch. The change represents nearly 7 percent more trees lost than in 2019. ...Brazil, which is home to much of the sprawling Amazon rainforest, saw the most tropical forest disappear, largely because of wildfires and the clearing of land, much of it illegally. The nation lost a swath of old-growth forest in 2020 larger than the state of Connecticut.... 

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