Environment
A Map That Counts All the Trees in the World
A new study says Earth is home to 3.04 trillion trees, more than seven times the previous estimate.
In the fight against climate change, the health of global forests is critical. Forest store carbon, purify air and water, and provide essential habitats and resources for countless species, humans very much included.
But attempts to quantify the number of trees in the world have been pretty sketchy—based on satellite imagery, approximations of forest cover, and little “ground truth.” How are scientists supposed to manage what they haven’t accurately measured?