The effects of deforestation on the climate are already visible and felt, and these effects are expected to increase over time. That’s why more than 100 world leaders pledged to end and reverse deforestation by 2030 at the COP26 climate summit. As today’s graphic using data from Our World in Data highlights, the world’s forests have been shrinking since the last ice age at an increasingly rapid rate.
Earth’s Surface: 10,000 years ago
To properly consider the deforestation situation, it helps to understand the total available surface of the Earth. After all, our world can feel huge when we look at maps or globes. But of the approximately 51 billion hectares of total surface area on Earth, more than 70% is occupied by oceans. What remains is 14.9 billion hectares of land, not all of which is habitable. Here’s how the land was distributed 10,000 years ago, after the last ice age and before the rise of human civilizations. Uninhabitable land on Earth (10,000 years ago):
Barren land (19% or 2.8 billion hectares)—Includes deserts, salt flats, exposed rock and sand dunes Glaciers (10% or 1.5 billion hectares)—The vast majority are concentrated in Antarctica
Habitable land on Earth (10,000 years ago):
Forest (57% or 6 billion hectares)—Includes tropical, temperate and boreal forests Grasslands (42% or 4.6 billion hectares) — Wild grasslands and scrub Fresh water (1% or
By 2018, forests had declined to just 4 billion hectares. What happened?
Forests and grasslands are giving way to agriculture
Once people figured out how to grow plants and animals for regular food sources, they needed land to use. For centuries, the loss of greenery was relatively slow. By 1800, the world had lost 700 million hectares of forest and grassland each, replaced by about 900 million hectares of land for grazing animals and 400 million hectares for crops. But industrialization in the 1800s quickly accelerated the process. Percentage of habitable land17001800190019502018 Forest52%50%48%44%38% Grasslands38%36%27%12%14% Grazing6%9%16%31%31% Crops3%4%8%12%15% Freshwater 1% 1% Urban 1 % While half of Earth’s forest loss occurred from 10,000 years ago to 1900, the other half, or 1.1 billion hectares, has been lost since 1900. Some of this loss, about 100 million hectares, occurred in the most recent time period from in 2000 to 2018. The biggest culprit? Although urban land use has increased rapidly, it still pales in comparison to the 31% of habitable land now used for livestock grazing. Most of this land originally came from reclaimed grassland, but forests have also been cleared along the way.
Where will the food come from?
Countries committed to ending deforestation have two major hurdles to overcome: finance and survival. First, there are many companies, jobs and economies based on the production and trade of goods produced from forests, such as timber. But more importantly, the world’s increasing use of land for crops and agriculture reflects our rapidly growing population. In 1900, the world population numbered just 1.6 billion people. By 2021, it had surpassed 7.9 billion, with hundreds of millions still affected by food insecurity every day. How do you feed so many without needing more land? The extremely large footprint of meat makes priority crops more attractive, and research into other solutions such as lab-grown meat and grazing erosion prevention is ongoing. As the effects of climate change become increasingly felt, it is likely that countries, companies and people will have to embrace many different solutions at once.
