In the book, The Myth of Progress, author Tom Wessels shares the following from Bjorn Lomborg’s The Skeptical Environmentalist:

“Discussing forests, Worldwatch Institute categorically states that the world’s forest estate has declined significantly in both area and quality in recent decades. As we shall see in the section on forests, the longest data series from the UN’s FAO show that global forest cover has increased from 30.04 percent in 1994, an increase of 0.85 percentage points over the last 33 years.”

Well, that’s certainly a surprise, isn’t it?

But Wessels goes to the source of Lomborg’s statistic (the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization) which defines a forest as: “any site that is greater than 0.5 hectares in size, with trees that reach a minimum of five meters in height and a crown coverage that exceeds 10 percent of the area.” Wessels explains that under this definition many suburban lawns, golf courses, and city parks would be considered forests! Exploring further, Wessel also learns that under the FAO guidelines tree plantations, tree nurseries and even recent clearcuts also fall under the definition of forest “if in time they will grow sixteen-foot tall trees.”

To me, this is another reminder to be very wary of statistics. Whenever we read or hear them, whether they support our personal ideologies or not, we need to question them.

~ Zoe

Filed under: accurate information Tagged: | accurate information, forests, Myth of Progress, primary sources, Skeptical Environmentalist, statistics, United Nations