Forest
Statistics
from
Strangely Like War:
The Global Assault on Forests
Derrick Jensen and George Draffan
2003
At A Glance
5% of native forest still stands in the continental US
440,000 miles of road run through National Forests (more road
than the interstate hwy system)
214,000 acres per day of forest are destroyed worldwide
121,875 square miles per year are destroyed (area larger than
Poland
)
130 species driven extinct daily
Historical Examples
The cradle of civilization -
Iraq
and her neighbors - are barren now. There used to be vast tracts of timber &
unbroken forests.
The cedar forests of
Turkey
- gone.
The oak forests of
SW Arabian
peninsula
- gone.
The juniper, fir, sycamore of what is now
Syria
- gone.
The cedars once found in
Israel
and
Lebanon
- gone.
In
Crete
and
Greece
,
the
Knossos
trees - gone.
Italy
was once forested, as was
North Africa
- both are now barren.
World Losses
By 1997
Nigeria
,
Finland
and
India
had lost 99% of their native forest.
At least 90% lost in
China
,
Vietnam
,
Laos
,
Guatemala
,
Ivory
Coast
,
Taiwan
,
Sweden
,
Bangladesh
,
Central
African Republic
,
US,
Mexico
,
Argentina
,
Burma
,
New
Zealand
,
Costa
Rica
,
Cameroon
,
Cambodia
At least 80% lost in
Australia
,
Brunei
,
Sri
Lanka
,
Zaire
,
Malaysia
,
Honduras
At least 70% lost in
Russia
,
Indonesia
,
Nicaragua
,
Bhutan
,
Congo
At least 60% lost in
Gabon
,
Papua
New Guinea
,
Panama
,
Belize
,
Colombia
,
Ecuador
At least 50% lost in
Brazil
,
Bolivia
Nearly 50% lost in
Chile
,
Peru
,
Canada
,
Venezuela
From 1996 to 1998 the
US
wood and paper products industry took in $3.6 billion in profits, paid $500
million in taxes and received $759 million in tax breaks. In 1998,
Weyerhaeuser’s taxes were a minus (-)$9.5 million.
In 1988 the
US
generated about 180 million tons of municipal waste. If current trends continue,
by 2010 the 275 million people in the
US
will produce 250 million tons of waste per year.
About 1/3 of the waste is generated by businesses. Office workers
discarded more than 7 million tons of office paper in 1988. Paper waste -
including cardboard and newspaper - was the single largest component of waste at
72 million tons, or 40%. Office paper increased from 1.7% of the total waste in
1960 to 4.1% in 1988, and it is projected to be 6.4% by 2010, making it one of
the fastest growing categories of waste, despite email and other technologies.
People in the
US
consume about 700 pounds of paper per year; wealthier and more highly educated
folks in CA average 900 pounds per year.
Waste Recovery Rates (i.e., recycling) in 1992 (in %):
Taiwan
= 56,
Netherlands
= 53,
Japan
= 52,
Germany
= 51,
Sweden
= 44,
US
= 39,
Denmark
= 37,
Mexico
and
Canada
= 35,
UK
= 32,
Finland
= 28,
China
= 24
In the
US
,
every 10% of recovered waste paper saves a million acres of forest from being
cut.
The global consumption of wood is up 50% since 1961.
Japan
is responsible for more than 40% of the world’s tropical wood trade. 1/3 of
the tropical wood that
Japan
imports is plywood used once or twice as cement forms in construction projects
and then thrown away.
More than 3/4 of the tropical timber used in the
US
is in the form of Lauan plywood. It is used for doors, under floors, as
furniture backing, signs, and movie and theater sets.
Annual paper consumption increased from 15 million tons in 1910
to 463 million tons in 1996. To provide that 463 million tons requires cutting 2
billion yards of wood covering 2 million acres of forest land.
Paper consumption/country/person
A person in the
US
consumes an average of 700 pounds of paper per year.
A person in the
UK
or
Japan
consumes an average of 330 lbs/yr.
A person in a non-industrialized nation consumes an average of 12
lbs/yr.
2/3 of the worlds paper is made into packaging, tissue, toilet
paper and other disposable products.
Less than 1% of the
US
paper fiber comes from sources other than wood. Worldwide, only 6% of all paper
fiber is not from wood.
China
manages to get 60% of its paper fiber from sources other than wood. Paper fiber
can be easily made from agricultural residue like wheat, barley and rice straw,
corn and sorghum stalks, and sugar cane. More than 800,000 acres of hemp fiber
are being cultivated in the northern hemisphere.