Chart of the day: What if deforestation were a country?

Nov 22, 2018

Aerial view shows farmland next to the Amazon rainforest in Mato Grosso state August 9, 2005. The Brazilian government announced the latest data on deforestation of the Amazon Basin, with a total of 26,130 square km (10,089 square miles) of rainforest destroyed, equivalent to more than nine football fields every minute, during the 12-month period ending in August, 2004. The Amazon is home to up to 30 percent of the planet's animal and plant species. REUTERS/Bruno Domingos BD/KS also see GF1DVXADCRAA - RP6DRMUPZHAB

Deforestation has a huge impact on the volume of CO2 released into the atmosphere. Image: REUTERS/Bruno Domingos

John McKenna

Senior Writer, Formative Content

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Tropical deforestation's CO2e emissions are higher than India and Russia combined Image: World Resources Institute

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