Those of us who are paying serious attention know that there is vast misinformation about deforestation. Palm oil is widely blamed, but it turns out that going off palm oil would make the situation much worse. We are often told that the Amazon rainforest produces 20% of the world’s oxygen, but not that it also consumes 20% of the world’s oxygen. Germany claims that biodiesel is good for the environment, when it should be turning to electric vehicles, as Norway has done.
Halting deforestation is actually a relatively cheap way of stopping carbon emissions.
Global deforestation rates peaked in the 1980s.
President Lula cut deforestation in Brazil by 80% in his first term. Bolsonaro ramped it up again, but Lula is President again, and is cutting deforestation strongly again. We can talk seriously about reforestation there soon, as has happened in many countries that have made the modern transition to much higher agricultural yields.
The most important measures we can take to end deforestation are to support developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Rich countries should pay poor countries to keep their forests standing
- Increase crop yields in Africa, as has happened elsewhere
- Support a more rapid transition to lower-cost renewable energy
- Support environmentally sound palm oil production, which uses far less land than other oil crops
- Reduce meat consumption, especially beef
This is not a call for everybody to go vegan. Chicken, pork, milk, and cheese are much less harmful to the environment than beef.
If globally we were able to reduce the amount of beef we eat by 25%, and eliminate this from the worst producers, land use for beef production would be cut by a whopping 60%.
Most of that land saved is used for crops currently fed to cattle.
Beef needs nearly 100 times more land than plant-based protein such as tofu or beans.
As always, there are people who know what is really happening, and are delighted to be able to share their knowledge of what really works.