Ask A Scientist© Environmental Science Archive

Author:     landerso
Text:       I would like to know how fast the rain forests are shrinking.

Response #: 1 of 1
Author:     Don Libby
Text:       An essay by E.O. Wilson in the National Geographic Atlas of the 
World (1990) estimates the rate at about one percent per year, which he says 
is an area about the size of Panama. Judging from the data I have seen, the 
rate is something more like an area the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island 
each year. That is based on analysis of landsight photos by NASA, which puts 
the figure at 5,800 square miles per year. There were about 3.4 million square 
miles of rain forest in 1990. If the NASA estimate is correct, it should take 
about 600 years to cut them all down at the present rate. If E. O. Wilson's 
estimate is correct, they will all be gone in 100 years. My guess is that we 
will have a few hundred years to figure out how to save the rain forests and 
make them last forever (maybe even longer than the human species will last).