When a tree falls in the forest..

February 20, 2014 9:35 AM

Global Forest Watch uses satellites to monitor forest loss in near real-time (videos+images). It is now possible to see when forests (or even a couple big trees) are being cut down at the the time it happens, allowing officials and the public to notice and possibly take action. There is also a timeline showing forest loss/gain over time - how has your neighborhood fared?
posted by stbalbach (13 comments total)

If they're including trees harvested specifically for pulp/paper, shouldn't they have show replanted tree crop?
posted by hal9k at 9:49 AM on February 20, 2014

I think they do show red for loss and blue for gain. According to my map.
posted by stbalbach at 9:52 AM on February 20, 2014

Can we do this for poachers, and set up a space-laser-cannon to shoot them before they kill? Maybe even kill loggers who are illegally logging rainforest? It would be like those evil Bond villains, but for JUSTICE!
posted by symbioid at 9:59 AM on February 20, 2014

.....it does make a sound. Well, did you know that not all owls are wise?
posted by chuckiebtoo at 11:09 AM on February 20, 2014

"If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason." (src)
posted by blue_beetle at 11:23 AM on February 20, 2014

Dude i live in oregon. i dont need a graph. I see log truck after log truck going by every day. On the way to the port to sell the logs to Asia. If i drive west to the coast. there is mile after mile of scalped hillsides. Our government is a sellout to these resource plunderers. Ron Wyden signed off on all the old railway timberland to be cut now too. It looks like shit. its bad for the water and the wildlife. And it doesnt do ANYTHING for the people who live here except for the occasional heavy machinery operator or truck driver who is out of a job when the trees run out. Thanks for depressing me.
posted by Colonel Panic at 12:00 PM on February 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

What's with the absurdly aggressive "agree to the terms of service NO REALLY CLICK AGAIN TO TELL US YOU AGREE TO THE TERMS OF SERVICE" landing page?
posted by ook at 12:21 PM on February 20, 2014 [3 favorites]

Well, they noticed the trees one of my busy busy neighbors cut down a few months ago in the woods behind his house.
posted by aught at 1:22 PM on February 20, 2014

Not very accurate in my neighborhood.
posted by beagle at 4:09 PM on February 20, 2014

What's with the absurdly aggressive "agree to the terms of service NO REALLY CLICK AGAIN TO TELL US YOU AGREE TO THE TERMS OF SERVICE" landing page?

Get used to it. Some courts have ruled that if a website's terms of use are just mouse-type at the bottom, or behind a link, they are not legally binding. If it's in yer face and you have to agree to get past, you have clearly agreed to the terms.

/derail
posted by Artful Codger at 4:39 PM on February 20, 2014

Interestingly here the new growth is all obviously the result of cut block replanting because of the nice regular rectangles while the losses are much more organic looking because of the pine beetle devastation. Lots of the pine beetle trees were harvested but they don't stand out in the diagrams of dead trees.
posted by Mitheral at 9:15 PM on February 20, 2014

Ummm. It's companies who illegally log tree species like mahogany because single trees are worth tens of thousands of dollars. In economies where people are living on subsistence incomes (S. America) I don't think blaming individual loggers is helpful. In some places like Myanmar, the military government has sold big chunks of forest to foreign "Forest" companies who high-grade the hardwoods for huge profits and walk away from the mess. And because there's no legal way to sell these timber rights, the generals are forced to pocket the fees themselves.

It's organized crime, really.
posted by sneebler at 5:10 AM on February 21, 2014

This guy approves.
posted by homunculus at 7:09 PM on February 24, 2014