Natural Environment Blog

Here are some facts regarding the earth’s forests:

• One and a half acres of rainforest is lost every second.
• To date, earth has lost 50% of its tropical forests worldwide.
• Many countries have lost between 70% and 95% of their forests in a very short timespan. In a 15 year timespan, Nigeria lost 79% of its old growth forests!
• Earth’s forests are being cut down at the same rate in which the human population is increasing. The alarming thing is that this rate is actually accelerating.
• At the current rate of deforestation, we will only have 20% of the world’s forests left by 2030. 10% will be in a degraded condition.
• Experts have estimated that all of earth’s rainforests will be gone within 40 years.

Given the alarming rate of deforestation, something big needs to be done. Our increasing demand for paper doesn’t help either. In 2003, the Certified Forest Products Council said:

Worldwide demand for paper – the single largest use of wood fiber – is five times what it was in the 1950s. This number is expected to double again over the next 50 years.

What can be done about this? I’m sure plenty could be done.

To start with, paper doesn’t need to be made from wood. For example, perfectly good paper can be made out of Jute or Hemp. These plants grow much faster than trees, and use up much less land. Trees take many years to grow. Jute and Hemp are fully grown within months. They also have a higher biological efficiency than trees planted for the same purpose.

We need to start thinking about ways to reduce deforestation - then act on it. Otherwise, some of us may actually see a day where there are no rainforests left.

There’s little argument that the California redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) are the tallest living trees on our planet. These trees often grow to more than 100 meters tall.

In August 2006, a new “tallest tree in the world” was found. Once again, it was a California redwood, and it’s location was Redwood Forest ( Redwood National Park, California). This tree has been named “Hyperion” (from Greek mythology) and stands 115.55 meters (379.1 feet) tall!

How did they Measure the Tree?

The most accurate way of measuring a tall tree like Hyperion is to climb to the top, and drop a weighted tape measure. And that’s exactly what Steve Sillett did. Here’s a 2 part video of Steve measuring the world’s tallest tree for The Guinness Book of World Records. This video footage was taken for National Geographic.

Part 1:

Part 2:
And here’s Jim Speckler measuring the same tree:

So there you have it, the world’s tallest tree - or should I say, the world’s tallest, measured, tree!